Wooster Downs Thiel 87-77 at Carnegie Mellon Tourney

Antwyan Reynolds finished with 17 points, five assists and four steals.

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The College of Wooster, which is ranked as high as third in NCAA Division III men's basketball by the most recent poll conducted by d3hoops.com, improved to 3-0 on the season with an 87-77 victory over Thiel College - a team that won the Presidents' Athletic Conference title last year - in the first round of the Carnegie Mellon Tournament this afternoon.

In the first-ever meeting between the schools on the hardwood, Thiel held its lone lead of the game with just under seven minutes to play in the first half at 23-22 before the Scots rallied for 10-straight points and eventually went into halftime with a 41-33 lead.

Wooster then scored the first four points of the second stanza and later ran out to a 77-55 advantage - its biggest lead of the game. The Tomcats rallied late, pulling within 84-77 with 52 seconds left to play, but the Scots made three free throws down the stretch to seal their first double-digit win of the season.

Sophomore Bryan Nelson (Kettering, Ohio / Kettering Fairmont) led Wooster in scoring for the second game in a row with 23 points and in rebounding for the third time in as many contests with eight boards. Junior Antwyan Reynolds (Mansfield, Ohio / Mansfield Senior) poured in 17 points, including a team-best three three-pointers, to go along with his game-highs of five assists and four steals.

Others playing important roles in the victory were freshman Randy Sistrunk (Canton, Ohio / Canton McKinley), senior Nate Gaubatz (Wooster, Ohio / Northwestern), and junior Brian Carlisle (Dayton, Ohio / Oakwood). Sistrunk had 16 points, including 10 in the second half, on 8-of-12 shooting from the field, while Gaubatz scored 13 points and Carlisle totaled eight points and five boards on the day.

For Thiel, four players hit double digits in the scoring column led by Ivan Cilik, who had 18 points, while knocking down 7-of-11 field goal attempts. Shane Manley had 14 points, including four three-pointers, followed by A.H. Davis and Michael Ayers, who tossed in 13 and 12 points, respectively, for the Tomcats.

Wooster will aim for its second tournament championship of the year tomorrow (Nov. 26) when it plays host Carnegie Mellon University. The Scots, who hosted and won the Al Van Wie Rotary Classic last week, will be in the championship game at 3 p.m., while the tourney's consolation contest will take place at 1 p.m.