LATROBE, Pa. – Chatham Men's Basketball (9-4, 4-1 PAC) had another successful night shooting the basketball at Saint Vincent (7-7, 2-3) on Wednesday, defeating the Bearcats 87-80.
 
Senior Diaun Pinkett scored 21 points on 10-19 shooting, including 17 in the first half, to lead the Cougars. The Montour product additionally tallied 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals. Senior Lovenson Xavier recorded his fifth double-double of the season, scoring 19 points on 7-13 from the field while pulling down 13 rebounds and dishing out 3 assists. Senior Jake TenBerge also had a double-double, his fourth of the campaign, netting 17 points on 6-11 shooting with 11 boards. Junior Drew Vizenor also shot 6-11 from the field, including 2-5 from three-point range, tallying 14 points for Chatham.
 
Zach Genther opened the game by draining a three-pointer, and a TenBerge triple put the Cougars ahead 15-8 five minutes into the game. The Bearcats followed with a 7-0 run, and the score would be even at 15, 17, 19 and 22. 6 Pinkett points spearheaded a 9-1 Chatham scoring run to give the Cougs a 31-24 advantage with five minutes to go in the half. After 5 straight Saint Vincent points, 6 more points from Pinkett helped Chatham lead 39-35 at the intermission.
 
The Cougars would slowly increase their advantage throughout the second half. Sam Norfleet IV's basket plus one made the score 50-43 Chatham five minutes into the half. Then, the Cougars knocked down five straight field goals during a 10-2 run that included 6 points from Xavier, putting them up 70-55 with eight minutes left. 77-61 was Chatham's largest lead, and the game was seemingly over before the Bearcats' 15-4 run pulled them within 5 with just over a minute to play. Norfleet IV and TenBerge would hit all of their following free throws, however, and the Cougars held on to win by 7.
 
Chatham had its best free throw shooting game in program history, going 11-11 from the charity stripe. The Cougars had four previous perfect free throw shooting games, but had never shot better than 10-10 from the line. From the field, Chatham shot 35-71 (49.3%) including 54.1% in the second half. The Cougars held Saint Vincent to 43.1% shooting (28-65), including 1-9 (11.1%) from three-point range in the second half.
 
Men's Basketball will look to continue their winning streak on Saturday at 2 p.m. against Grove City at the Athletic and Fitness Center.