A wild second half of back and forth basketball saw the Chestnut Hill College Men's Basketball team hold off a tenacious Wilmington University squad as they defeated the Wildcats 60-59 Wednesday night at Sorgenti Arena.

The Griffins improve to 6-15 overall and even their conference record at 5-5 with the win.  The Wildcats fall to 11-9 overall and 5-4 in Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference games.

Argel Pettit IV led the Griffins with 22 points (8-15 FG, 6 three-point FG) while Noah Charles came off the bench to score 17 points (6-11 FG, 4-4 FT).  Neal Hill rounded out CHC's double figure scorers with ten points.

Hill narrowly missed his league leading seventh double-double with nine rebounds.  Alejandro Redondo Cybak led all players with 15 rebounds and also just missed his seventh double-double of the season with eight points. Cybak also led the team with five assists and three blocks.  Hill added four assists and Charles had three steals on the night.

The second half of the game saw nine lead changes and eight ties as neither team led by more than four points throughout the 20 minutes of action.  Chestnut Hill held a slim one point lead at halftime and increased it to three just 1:09 into the period with a Pettit three-ball (41-38).  Wilmington scored two straight baskets to reclaim the lead before Cybak put the Griffins back on top 43-42.  The wildcats and the Griffins kept the contest to a one possession game with the lead changing hands several times over the next eight minutes.  Two free throws from Charles followed by a Pettit layup broke a 52-52 tie and gave the Griffins their biggest lead of the half, 56-52 with 7:40 remaining.

One minute later the Wildcats evened the game again at 56-56 and two minutes after that took a one-point lead on an Amiri Stewart (24 points) traditional three-point play 59-58 with 4:02 left in the game.  Kamal Lee added two free throws to put the Griffins back on top 60-59 with 3:09 left – which was where the scoring stopped as both teams combined to go 0-for-8 from the field over the final three minutes.  The Wildcats had the ball with a chance to win in the final seconds but missed two shots with the Griffins coming up with the ball as time expired.

The first half also had its share of back-and-forth basketball but in the context of big runs as the Wildcats opened the game with a 10-1 run before the Griffins exploded with a 20-4 uprising to take a seven point lead 21-14 with 11:35 left.  CHC then added a 9-2 run to gain their biggest lead of the game at 30-16 at the 9:18 mark.  Ten straight Wildcat points cut CHC's lead to four 30-26 and after layups from Hill and Charles to push the lead back up to eight, Wilmington closed out the half on a 10-3 run to pull within one at halftime 37-36.

The Wildcats had the better shooting percentage, making 25 of 58 shots (43.1%) with the Griffins shooting 41.2% (21-51).  CHC doubled up Wilmington with eight three-point baskets to the Wildcats four and ten free throws to WU's five.  Wilmington finished the game with a 36-33 rebounding advantage, including an 11-6 margin on the offensive glass. 

The men's basketball team returns to action on February 3, 2024, when they host Post University at Sorgenti Arena.  Tipoff is set for 3:00 p.m.