MEADVILLE, Pa. -- The Allegheny College men's basketball team punched its ticket to the 2022-23 Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) championship game in emphatic fashion, as the second-seeded Gators rolled to a 106-66 victory over sixth-seeded Thiel College in front of a capacity crowd on Thursday night.

Allegheny (19-8) will now host fourth-seeded Chatham University on Saturday, February 25, at 7:30 p.m. inside the David V. Wise Center in the PAC championship game. The Cougars (16-11) upset the No. 1 seed, Washington and Jefferson College, by a score of 87-61 in Washington, Pennsylvania, in the other semifinal matchup.

The Gators never trailed the Tomcats (13-12) after Caden Hinckley's (Boise, Idaho/Mt. Lebanon (Pa.)) first bucket in the opening minute. It remained a respectable game until Allegheny ended the first half on a 27-7 run that put the Blue and Gold ahead by 20, 53-33, heading into the break.

The two teams also duplicated that score in the second half, as Allegheny ran the Tomcats out of the barn with a lopsided 40-point victory.

Every starter reached double figures, led by Andre Wilder (Beaver Falls, Pa./Lincoln Park) with a 28-point, 12-rebound double-double. Wilder only missed one shot, as the junior finished 11-of-12 (91.7%) overall and 3-of-4 (75.0%) from 3-point range.

Hinckley was one rebound shy of a double-double and added five blocks to his 21 points. Ryan Lang (Sarver, Pa./Knoch) made 6-of-8 (75.0%) of his 3-pointers en route to 22 points.

Inside the Box Score

• As one might expect from the score, Allegheny outperformed Thiel in nearly every category.
• The Gators shot 57.7% (41-of-71) overall and 58.1% (18-of-31) from 3-point range.
• The Tomcats were only 32.0% (24-of-75) overall and 35.7% (5-of-14) from beyond the arc.
• AC had a plus-two rebound margin, 43-to-41, and four times as many assists, 20-to-5.
• Both halves ended with the same score, 53-33, and the only time Allegheny was not in the lead was with the score tied at 0-0.
• Wilder led all players from both teams in points (28) and rebounds (12).
• Lang (22) and Hinckley (21) both surpassed the 20-point plateau.
• Preston Turk (New Castle, Pa./Neshannock) and Luke Barker (New Castle, Pa./Struthers (Ohio)) added 15 and 11 points, respectively, and the duo combined for 12 of Allegheny's 20 assists.
• Elijah Harden paced Thiel with 20 points, while Ahmad Tejumola logged a double-double of his own with 15 points and 10 boards.

News and Notes

• Allegheny is headed to the 2022-23 PAC Championship Tournament final in its first season back in the conference since 1984.
• Saturday's championship appearance is Allegheny's first since reaching the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) finals in 2002-03.
• With their 19th win, the Gators have tied the NCAC finalist team from 1998-99 for the most wins in a single season over the past 24 years.
• Allegheny has completed the biggest one-year turnaround in program history by adding 11 games to the win column; the previous team record was 10 games from 1994-95 (7-18) to 1995-96 (17-10).
• Wilder tied a career-high for points with his third 28-point effort of the season.
• Hinckley needs one rebound in Saturday's PAC championship game to tie the all-time single-season record of 295, and he needs three to become the second Gator ever to surpass 800 career rebounds.

Up Next
The second-seeded Gators will host fourth-seeded Chatham inside the David V. Wise Center on Saturday, February 25, at 7:30 p.m., in the 2022-23 PAC Championship Tournament title game.