GREENVILLE, Pa. -- Cameron Seemann (Loveland, Ohio/Archbishop Moeller) tallied game highs with 22 points and seven rebounds to guide Washington & Jefferson men's basketball to a 71-59 win over Thiel in road PAC action on Thursday, Jan. 3.

The Presidents, who have won their last four PAC games, are 6-8 overall and 4-1 in conference. W&J's 4-1 league record is its best start in the PAC since the since the 2005-06 season, when it won six of its first seven conference contests. 

The Presidents went ahead early in tonight's bout with an outstanding defensive effort, holding the Tomcats to 4-for-26 (15.4 percent) shooting from the floor in the first half.  

By stifling the Thiel offense, W&J capitalized with a 14-1 run to go ahead 15 points, 20-5, with 10:43 left in the half. Nicholas Campalong (Sewickley, Pa./Ambridge) and Primo Zini (Morgantown, W. Va./Trinity Christian) fueled the surge with seven and six points, respectively. By the end of the stanza, the Presidents owned a 29-15 lead.  

The second half continued to favor the Presidents, as they were able to build their advantage to as much as 22 points, 53-31, with 9:41 left in the contest. A late surge by the Tomcats drew the final score closer, but the Red & Black held steady to take the 71-59 victory. 

For the game, the Presidents held Thiel to 22-for-61 (36.1 percent) shooting from the field. The Tomcats' 59 points are a season low for a W&J opponent. These shooting woes led to a 36-32 rebounding advantage for the Red & Black. 

On the other end of the court, the Presidents had one of their best shooting games of the year. The Red & Black made a season-high 58.8 percent (10-for-17) of their three-point attempts, while their 53.2 field goal percentage (14-for-24) is their second-best mark of the year.  

Seemann spearheaded the Presidents' strong-shooting night by going 8-for-14 (57.1 percent) from the floor. Coming into the year with zero double-digit scoring efforts, the sophomore guard has reached 10 points 11 times this season, with four of those efforts being above 20 points. 

Joining Seemann in double-digits was Zini, who finished with 15 points on 5-for-11 (45.5 percent) shooting. Zini has scored double-digit points seven times on the year, doing so in all but one conference game. 

Rounding out W&J's main contributors was Zach Queen (Jeannette, Pa./Hempfield Area) and Campalong. Queen poured in nine points, all on three-pointers, to go along with two assists and two steals. Campalong logged eight points and six boards in 22 minutes of action. 

The Presidents will return to Henry Memorial Center on Saturday, Jan. 5, to take on Waynesburg at 3 p.m. in their first home game of 2019.