WASHINGTON, Pa. -- Matt Seidl (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) and Kyran Mitchell (Reading, Pa./Berks Catholic) combined to account for 47 points as the top-seeded Washington & Jefferson men's basketball team collected an 85-68 win over the eighth-seeded Grove City Wolverines Tuesday evening in the Presidents' Athletic Conference Tournament Quarterfinals at Salvitti Family Gymnasium.
The win moves W&J to 20-6 overall while Grove City finishes its season at 10-16. The Presidents reached the 20-win mark for a second-straight season and the only fourth time in program history.
Seidl, the North Hills product, finished with a game-high 25 points in the victory as he surpassed the 400-point mark for the season. Mitchell turned in an efficient performance, as the senior posted 22 points, six rebounds, four steals and four blocks in the winning effort. Mitchell will enter Thursday's semifinal round with 994 career points.
The Presidents opened the game with a skid as the Wolverines jumped out to an early 6-0 lead. W&J quickly countered with six straight points --- all of which came by Mitchell. W&J took its first lead at the 10:41 mark of the first half when Seidl drained a three and Beckett Connelly (Beaver, Pa./Beaver) added a layup to make it 15-13 W&J. Seidl continued his stellar play, as the freshman drained three three-point field goals in a three-plus minute span to swell the W&J advantage to 26-13 with 7:47 remaining in the first half. The visiting Wolverines were able to cut their deficit back into single digits (26-19) on a triple by Daniel Penosky at the 5:54 mark. However, W&J quickly pushed the lead back into double digits for the remainder of the half.
J.R. Mazza (Bridgeport, W.Va./University) sank a successful three-point field goal with less than a minute to play in the first half. W&J led by a 40-29 margin at halftime.
The Wolverines made things interesting in the second half. Grove City used its deliberate attack to trim the deficit to 52-49 on a Ben Cano layup at the 11:36 mark.
W&J used a 13-0 run over the next two-plus minutes to take control for good. Five different Presidents scored during the run, which was capped by a Seidl layup that stretched the lead to 65-49 with 9:11 to play. W&J led by double digits the rest of the way. Seidl gave the Presidents their largest lead of the game, a 21-point advantage, when Seidl made a layup with 5:09 left.
The Presidents held advantages in points in paint (44-34), bench points (45-26) and points off turnovers (19-8).
W&J made 45.5 percent of its field goal attempts (30-of-66) in the game. The Presidents converted at a 53.5 percent clip in the second half and sank 13-of-16 free throw attempts over the final 20 minutes.
Grove City committed 21 turnovers to just seven miscues for W&J.
W&J advances into the PAC semifinals where they will meet fourth-seeded Chatham University. The Cougars defeated fifth-seeded Westminster by an 85-76 score in Tuesday's quarterfinal round.
The game between the Presidents and Cougars will be a rematch of last year's PAC Tournament title game. The Presidents won both meetings head-to-head this season, as they edged the Cougars 70-69 on Nov. 30 and came away with an 84-78 road win in Pittsburgh on Jan. 25.