LATROBE, Pa. (Jan. 17) – The Saint Vincent men's basketball team's storybook season continued with an 86-74 victory over Thiel College in a Presidents' Athletic Conference matchup in the Robert S. Carey Student Center.
 
The win kept the Bearcats' record perfect on the season and extended their winning streak to a program-record 17 games. Saint Vincent (17-0, 12-0 PAC) is now one of just two NCAA Division-III men's teams, and one of just three across all NCAA classifications, with a perfect record.
 
Saint Vincent's Jaden Gales led all players with 21 points and was one of our Bearcats to score in double figures. Dev Ostrowski and Osyon Jones each added 14 points, and Mike Iuzzolino 12. The Bearcats shot a strong 55 percent from the field (32-58), led by Jones' 7-9 mark and Ostrowski's 7-11 performance. Corey Harden added eight points, on 4-6 shooting, while Tayler McNeal scored seven points with a team-high four assists. In all, 10 different players Saint Vincent players scored.
 
Defensively, the Bearcats limited the Tomcats (5-12, 4-8 PAC) to just 42 percent (27-64) from the floor and forced 17 Thiel turnovers. Gales led both sides with four steals, and Ostrowski pocketed a pair of thefts.
 
The Bearcats jumped out to leads of 13-9 and 19-13 in the opening six minutes before Thiel countered with a 12-4 run to take a 25-23 lead with 8:10 left. Jones promptly tied it with a driving layup, and the Bearcats would then regain the lead after a Gales free throw and a Harden layup made it 28-25 with 6:29 left. The Bearcats would then gradually increase the lead over the final minutes of the half, with an Iuzzolino three upping the margin to 33-27 at the 5-minute mark, before a pair of Jones baskets and an Ostrowski jumper pushed the SVC lead into double digits, 43-32, at the one-minute mark. The Tomcats scored on the final trip of the half to cut the score to 43-34 at the break.
 
Gales scored eight points in the first four minutes of the second half to increase the Bearcat lead to 55-42, before Iuzzolino and McNeal connected on three-pointers on back-to-back trips to make it 61-46 with 13:10 left.
 
The gap would remain between 13 and 15 points over the next several trips, which included an offensive putback by Jordan Lucas-Johnson and a mid-range jumper from Harden, before four more points from Gales and a fastbreak layup from Ostrowski gave SVC its largest lead of the night, 75-54, with 6:42 left in regulation.
 
The Bearcats would then cruise down the stretch, maintaining a lead of at least 13 points until the game's final minute.
 
Saint Vincent ended the evening with advantages in points in the paint (40-34), points off turnovers (24-17), fastbreak points (21-6) and bench points (18-11).
 
Thiel was led on the scoresheet by Elijah Harden, who scored 20 points, while Rayshod Hooper and Ethan Barnes each scored 16.
 
The Bearcats will take their winning streak on the road, returning to action on Saturday, Jan. 20, with a 3:30 p.m. PAC game at longtime rival Westminster College.