GREENVILLE, Pa. (Feb. 17) – The Saint Vincent men's basketball team defeated the Thiel Tomcats 82-67 at Beeghly Gymnasium to clinch the Presidents' Athletic Conference regular season championship.

The win improved SVC to 18-6 overall and 14-3 in the PAC. Thiel dropped to 12-12 overall and 10-7 in the league.

In the win, JC Howard scored 12 points to become the 32nd player in Saint Vincent men's basketball history to score 1,000 points for his career.

The Bearcats got off to a good start, taking a 4-0 lead on a pair of free throws by Austin Dedert and a jumper in the lane by Pat Jones.

After Thiel responded with four straight points, SVC got back-to-back steals that led to transition layups by Jaylon Bell and Jones, taking an 8-4 lead at the 16 minute mark of the half.

Thiel answered back with seven straight points, taking an 11-8 edge over the Bearcats. Ben Klimchock would split a pair of free throws and then making a layup to tie the game at 11-11 with 13 minutes remaining in the half.

The Tomcats would use an 8-3 run, including two threes by Khari Bess, to take a 19-14 lead. Bell would make a pair of free throws before Jones knocked down a jumper to bring the Bearcats within one point at 19-18.

Trailing by five points, Jones knocked down a three from straight on and JC Howard added a layup on the fastbreak to tie the game at 23-23 with 5:06 to play in the half. That marked the first time the game had been evened up since the score was knotted at 11-11.

That is when Jones took over for the remainder of the half, scoring the final seven Saint Vincent points to help give the visitors at 32-27.

Jones led all scorers with 16 points over the first 20 minutes, while Bess scored 15 points for the Tomcats in the opening half. Thiel shot 42.1 percent in the first half, while SVC shot just 34.4 percent. However, SVC attempted 13 more shots than Thiel because they forced the Tomcats into 14 turnovers.

Thiel brought the game back to a tie at 36-36 early on in the second half. SVC then used a 14-3 run to push the lead back into double digits when Dan Sinwell knocked down a jumper, making it 50-39 with 12:46 to play.

Saint Vincent held a double digit lead for the remainder of the game to take the PAC regular season title for the third time in the last four years.

The Bearcats scored 50 points in the second half, shooting 60.9 percent from the field over the final 20 minutes.

A key part of the game was turnovers as the Bearcats forced the Tomcats into 25 miscues in the contest.

Individually, Jones led the Bearcats with 23 points. Bell added 20 points, four rebounds and four steals. Howard scored 12 points and Bobby Swartwout tallied 11 points to round out the Bearcats in double digits.

The Bearcats close out the regular season with a road game in Kentucky at Thomas More on Saturday, Feb. 20. Start time is slated for 2 p.m.