GREENVILLE, Pa. – Sophomore guard Khari Bess (Waldorf, Md./Maurice J. Mcdonough) sunk a pair of free throws with a 1:27 left on the clock and the Thiel College men's basketball team earned a heart-stopping 54-52 victory Tuesday night against Penn State Behrend.
 
The game started off slowly for both sides, as there were three lead changes and two ties through the first 20 minutes of play. Bess stole a Behrend pass and laid it in for the first points of the game for the Tomcats. The Lions (2-1) rallied as Zane Hackett connected on one-of-two free throws to regain the lead.
 
Penn State Behrend built a 10-8 lead at the 13:54 mark of the first half. The Tomcats showed their resiliency by scoring six-straight points on a run that was capped by a 15-foot jumper from freshman forward Reggie Goosby (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons) to give Thiel a 14-10 lead. Unfortunately, Behrend outscored the Tomcats (10-8) for the remainder of the first half, as Thiel held a narrow 22-20 advantage heading into the locker rooms.
 
Coach Tim Loomis's squad went to work in the second half and slowly added to their lead, as sophomore forward Luke Kochka (Monroeville, Pa. /Gateway)'s three-pointer with 13 minutes to play increased Thiel's lead to 10 (41-31). Back-to-back buckets by the Lions cut the Tomcats lead down to six (41-35) with 11:40 left to play, but Simeon Revales (Miami, Fla./Monsignor Pace) answered for Thiel, scoring one of his six points off the bench to push Thiel's advantage back to eight.
 
Behrend kept chipping away, as a turn-around jumper from the paint by Shane Skelly with 1:42 left to play cut Thiel's lead down to two (52-50).
 
Skelly then immediately fouled Bess on the inbounds, and for the second time this season the sophomore from Walforf, Maryland stepped to the free throw line with a chance to seal the win for the Tomcats. He didn't disappoint, sinking both to give Thiel a 54-50 lead with 1:27 to play.
 
A wild minute and 27 seconds of basketball commenced immediately following Bess's free throws, as the Tomcat defense held while the Lions had three open looks they could not convert. With nine seconds remaining and Behrend set to inbound, the two teams combined to call three timeouts. After three minutes and 30 seconds of talking it over, the Lions broke the huddle and found Hackett underneath the basket for a quick up-and-under that cut Thiel's lead down to two, 54-52 with just eight seconds to play.
 
Again, Thiel called its final two timeouts, and after the Lions fouled and a Thiel free throw rattled the rim and rolled out, Casey Courneen's heave from half-court nicked the iron but was ultimately short, giving the Tomcats their second win of the season.
 
Bess was a big part of an all-around Thiel team effort as he poured in a career-high 18 points and finished with five steals, four assists, three rebounds and two blocks. Kochka chipped in nine points on 3-of-4 shooting from behind the arc, and Goosby added eight points and a team-high eight rebounds.
 
Thiel converted on 42.3 percent of its shots from the field, while Behrend connected on 42.6 percent of its tries from the floors. The Tomcats sunk 3-of-8 three pointers and held a sizeable 32-to-24 advantage in rebounding.
 
The Tomcats are back in action on Dec. 4, when they travel to Beaver Falls, Pa. to open Presidents' Athletic Conference play against the Geneva Golden Tornadoes. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.