WASHINGTON, Pa. – The Washington & Jefferson men's basketball team bested the visiting Thiel Tomcats in their first home PAC matchup of the year, 77-59.
 
The Presidents improve to 10-4 on the year and 6-3 in conference play while the Tomcats drop to 5-8 overall and 4-5 in PAC play.
 
Michael Plasko (McDonald, Pa./South Fayette) led the team in scoring for the second-consecutive game, tallying 16 points on the night and missing just one of his seven shot attempts. Alex Acosta (Acworth, Ga./North Cobb) and Nathan Plonter (Parkersburg, W.Va./Parkersburg South) each dropped 13 points on the night. Matt Seidl (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) and Matthew Carte (Ravenswood, W.Va./Ravenswood) also finished in double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
 
Acosta tallied a team high seven rebounds while Plotner registered two of the teams four blocks and a team high three assists on the evening.
 
Thiel jumped out to an early 11-7 lead over the Presidents after tallying the first five points of the bout. From there, W&J tied the score at 11, then again 13 before a bucket from Acosta from beyond the arc pushed the Presidents to their first lead of the game 16-13.
 
Three different buckets from freshman guard, Plasko, propelled the Presidents ahead 22-13. The 11-point difference was the insurance W&J used to carry them into the half ahead 39-29.
 
Thiel was able to bring the contest within eight points at the 17:29 mark but that was the closest the Tomcats were able to cut the deficit as W&J took control of the game with their full court press to clasp a 77-59 victory over Thiel.
 
W&J held sizeable advantages in bench points (26-4), points off of turnovers (23-13) and fast break points (21-8).
 
The team travels next to Waynesburg, Pa. on Saturday (Jan. 11) to take on the Waynesburg Yellow Jackets in PAC action. The contest is set to get underway at 3:00 p.m.