Box Score
Bill Luther scored 22 points, and
Ian Vescovi added 21 points to help the Mountain Cats rebound from Saturday's loss with an 83-74 victory over Shaw (NC) University in Sunday's final round of the Indiana University (PA) IRMC Classic. Pitt-Johnstown improved to 4-2, and Head Coach
Bob Rukavina collected his 396
th career victory at the helm of the Mountain Cat program.
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Pitt-Johnstown, which never trailed in the game, opened-up a 15-4 advantage on a
Nate Snodgrass jumper five minutes in.
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Carlton Johnson's lay-up a minute later cut the Shaw deficit to 15-9, but the Mountain Cats quickly pushed the lead into double digits on a Vescovi bucket, before an
A.J. Leahey 3-pointer extended it to 40-20 with just under six minutes left in the first half.
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An 8-0 Bears' runs got the deficit down to 12, but Pitt-Johnstown got a 3-pointer from Luther and a basket from
Matt Palo with 1:31 to go to build the lead back up to 17, before Pitt-Johnstown took a 47-32 halftime advantage.
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Shaw came out and outscored the Mountain Cats 27-15 over the first 12 minutes of the second half to pull to within three at 62-59 on Johnson's basket in the paint.
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However, Pitt-Johnstown recovered to extend it to 68-61 on another Leahey 3-pointer at 6:17.
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Snodgrass then hit a free-throw with 3:08 on the clock to make it 78-65, and the Mountain Cats went on to the nine-point victory.
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Luther finished with 22 points, including four 3-pointers, and five rebounds, while Vescovi tallied 21 points and five rebounds to lead Pitt-Johnstown.Â
Andrew Cressler scored eight points, while Snodgrass had seven points, three rebounds, and a game-high six assists, and
Paul Weatherly score seven points.
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Luther, who needs 64 points to become Pitt-Johnstown's 25
th 1,000-point scorer, also ranks third on the Mountain Cat All-Time 3-point Field Goals List with 202.
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Pitt-Johnstown, which shot 66.7% in the first half, ended the game at 57.4% (27-47). The Mountain Cats were also 8-14 from behind the 3-point line and an impressive 21-23 from the charity stripe. Shaw shot 50.9% (28-55) from the floor and 6-19 from 3-point range, but the Bears hit just 12-21 from the free-throw line.
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Curtis Hines led all scorers and four Bears who scored in double figures with 24 points. Koron Reed had 13 points and six rebounds and Larry Richardson and Andre Paulk netted 12 and 10 points respectively, for Shaw, now 1-5.
The Mountain Cats travel to Clarion University for a PSAC game on Wednesday, before closing out the first semester with three straight conference doubleheaders with the Lady Cats beginning with Slippery Rock University on Saturday.
