Men’s Basketball – Thiel
#5 Elijah Harden
6-1 Freshman Guard
Stat Line: 26 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists
The sixth-seeded Thiel Tomcats traveled on Tuesday night to face off against the third-seeded Geneva Golden Tornadoes. Geneva swept the regular season series against Thiel, but in the PAC men’s basketball quarterfinals, the outcome was slightly different. Both teams traded leads early in the first half, but the Tomcats started to pull away nearing halftime. Freshman guard Elijah Harden put the Tomcats lead into double digits with a pull-up jump shot for two of his 11 first half points. Harden was just getting warmed up, as he single-handedly ended the first half on a 7-2 run with three of those seven points coming off of a half-court buzzer beater as time expired. Thiel continued to keep its distance from Geneva in the second half, and wound up pulling off the upset with a 99-84 victory. Harden finished the night with 26 points on 10-for-16 shooting from the floor and a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line. For his performance, Harden was named the Foster Law Office Player of the Game.
