GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Allegheny men's basketball team collected their seventh straight victory, topping Thiel 79-67 in a Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) road bout Saturday (Jan. 28).
 
The seventh straight win matched their longest win streak since they also won seven in a row during the 2002-03 campaign.
 
The teams were evenly matched in the opening five minutes. Thiel would gain a small advantage but the Gators quickly closed the gap, tying it at 24 apiece following a traditional three point play by Luke Barker (New Castle, Pa./Struthers (Ohio)). That three point play was part of an Allegheny 7-0 run. Soon after that run was halted, the Gators put together another big run, this time 16-0, to gain a 44-37 advantage. Barker scored seven of the points during the run which persisted through a pair of Tomcat timeouts. The pair of runs guided the Gators to a 47-39 lead at halftime.
 
Barker scored 18 first half points while Ryan Lang (Sarver, Pa./Knoch) was also in double-digits with 11. As a team, Allegheny shot 55.59% from the field (19-of-34) and owned a 23-18 rebounding advantage.
 
Similar to the opening half, the second half started with back-and-forth play. Back-to-back threes by Preston Turk (New Castle, Pa./Neshannock) and Andre Wilder (Beaver Falls, Pa./Lincoln Park) pushed the Gators back to a double-digit lead, 58-48. Thiel stayed within reach for most of the second half, but a 7-0 Gator run with under five minutes to play pushed their advantage to as much as 14 as they closed out their seventh straight victory.
 
Inside the Box

• Barker ended the game with a team leading 24 points. He also grabbed five rebounds, dished out three assists, had two steals and one block.
• Wilder finished with 18 points, nine rebounds and a block.
• Lang tallied 16 points with three rebounds and three assists.
• Caden Hinckley (Boise, Idaho/Mount Lebanon (Pa.)) produced his 13th double-double of this season with 15 points and 16 rebounds. He also blocked five shots for the fourth time this season.
• Turk rounded out scoring with six points while leading the team with five assists.
• The Gators shot 50.0% for the game (29-of-58). 

News and Notes

• The Gators improved to 14-6 overall and 12-3 in PAC play this season.
• Sweeping the regular season series, the Gators are now 97-43 all-time against Thiel.
• The win marked the seventh straight for the Gators, matching their longest streak since the 2002-03 season.
• With five blocks today, Hinckley's season total reached 53, which sits just behind Garret Dagget's single season record of 54. 

Up Next
The Gators remain on the road Wednesday (Feb. 1) when they travel to Washington and Jefferson for a 7 pm PAC contest.