Mountain Cats Dominate PSU-Beaver, 108-59
Miller Two 3-Pointers Away from School Record
     01/23/13... (Box Score) Jordan Miller (Vinco, Pa.) moved to within two of the Pitt-Johnstown record for career-3-pointers, and Nick Novak (Murrysville, Pa.) scored 19 points and dished out a career-high 14 assists to lead the Mountain Cats to a lopsided 108-59 non-conference victory over Penn State-Beaver, Wednesday night in the Sports Center.  The Mountain Cats, who got at least seven points from all nine players who dressed, improved to 10-7 on the year.
     The Mountain Cats shot 67.6% in the first half and dominated from start to finish.  Pitt-Johnstown got five quick points from Ian Vescovi (Patton, Pa.) and Jordan Miller's (Vinco, Pa.) first 3-pointer of the night to race out to an 11-0 lead.
    Bll Luther's (Gibsonia, Pa.) 3-pointer at 13:24 of the first half extended it to 21-7, before Penn State-Beaver scored the next five to cut it to nine on a Nick Miller tri-fecta at the 13-minute mark.
     However, it never got any closer.  the Mountain Cats outscored the Lions 33-12 the rest of the way to build a 30-point halftime advantage.
     A Dereck Malzi (Johnstown, Pa.) jumper followed by a Malzi 3-pointer pushed it to 48-20 with 2:48 left, before Andrew Cressler's (Pittsbugh, Pa.) driving lay-up with 31 seconds made 54-24 at the half.
     Two more Jordan Miller 3-pointers put Pitt-Johnstown up 70-36 less than five minutes into the second half, and Noah Hartung (Butler, Pa.) scored in the paint at 11:44 to get the lead out to 47 at 83-46.
     The lead to grew to as many as 51 on Hartung's 3-pointer with 40 seconds remaining.
     Novak scored 19 points and had a career-high 14 assists to pace seven Pitt-Johnstown players who scored in double figures.  Luther had 15 points, and Jordan Miller had 13 points, including three 3-pointers to get him to within a pair of the school record.  Hartung also scored 13 points on 6-6 shooting, while Matt Palo (North Huntingdon, Pa.), Paul Weatherly (Johnstown, Pa.), and Malzi each finished with 11 points.  
     Novak moved into second-place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Scoring List with 1,768 points and is in third-place on the assists list with 488, while Miller is 13th on the scoring list with (1,244 pts.) and second on the all-time 3-point field goal list (267), two shy of Danny Branch's record of 269 set in 2011.
     After shooting nearly 68% in the first half, Pitt-Johnstown improved to 70% in the second half and finished at 68.1% (47-69) for the game.  The Mountain Cats, who owned the glass with a 50-28 advantage, were are also 11-18 from behind the 3-point line and 3-6 from the free-throw line.  Penn State-Beaver was held to just 30.4% (21-69) shooting from the floor, 5-20 from 3-point range, and 12-21 from the charity stripe.
     Julian Taylor scored 14 points, and Chris Weather chipped-in 10 points for the Lions, who fell to 16-4 on the season. 
     The Mountain Cats host a WVIAC doubleheader with the Lady Cats against West Virginia Wesleyan College on Saturday.  The Lady Cats will tip-off Saturday's games at 1 p.m., with the men's game to follow at 3 p.m.