Men's Basketball 6/13/2013 3:00:00 PM

Mountain Cats Fall 82-74 at Alderson-Broaddus

01/10/2011

Patrick Grubbs (Turtle Creek, Pa.) scored 24 points to pull to within four of 1,000 for his career, but Alderson-Broaddus (WV) College built a 15-point second half lead and held off the Mountain Cats, 82-74, Monday night in Philippi, W. Va. Pitt-Johnstown had its four-game winning streak snapped and slipped to 9-3 overall and 6-2 in the WVIAC.
Nate Barnes hit a pair of three-pointers to help Alderson-Broaddus run out to an 8-0 early lead, but Grubbs and Danny Branch (Washington, D.C.) combined to score the next 17 points in a 17-5 run to give Pitt-Johnstown a 17-13 advantage five minutes later.
The Mountain Cats pushed the lead out to 28-22 on Nick Novak's (Murrysville, Pa.) basket at 6:56, before the Battlers used an 11-0 run over the next 2:28, capped by Nate Tait's bucket in the paint, to put Alderson-Broaddus in front 33-28.
It stayed close the rest of the half, and Novak's jumper as time ran out tied the score at 38 at the halftime break.
Similar to the first half, the Battlers raced out and scored the first seven points to go up 45-38. Alderson-Broaddus extended it to 57-44 on Garrett Putnam's lay-up six minutes into the second half.
Pitt-Johnstown narrowed the gap to 57-52 2:21 later on two Paul Weatherly (Johnstown, Pa.) free-throws, but Carl Buck's basket got the lead out to 15 at 71-56 with 5:16 to play.
The Mountain Cats clawed back to to pull to within five at 75-70 on Branch's three-pointer with 1:13 remaining, but the Battlers got the job done from the free-throw line, hitting 11-12 down in the final three minutes to preserve the lead.
Grubbs led Pitt-Johnstown with 24 points on 10-17 shooting and 4-9 from the free-throw line, while Branch added 17 points, and Novak chipped in 16 points and a game-high six assists. Weatherly scored six points, and Bill Luther (Gibsonia, Pa.) pulled down a team-high five rebounds.
Branch, who holds the Mountain Cat career-record for three-pointers with 216, also ranks 10th on the Pitt-Johnstown All-Time Scoring List with 1,247 points. Grubbs stands in eighth-place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Rebounding List with 598. Grubbs is also four points away from becoming the 22nd Mountain Cat to reach the 1,000-point plateau.
The Mountain Cats shot 48.3% (26-60) from the field, but just 4-21 from behind the three-point line. Pitt-Johnstown was also 12-18 from the free-throw line. Alderson-Broaddus finished the night shooting 42.6% (26-61) from the floor and 10-31 from three-point range. However, the Battlers were 20-23 from the charity stripe and out-rebounded the Mountain Cats 45-26.
Barnes led all scorers with 28 points. Buck had 21 points, and Putnam chipped in 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds for the Battlers, who improved to 8-4 overall and 5-4 in the WVIAC.
The Mountain Cats host a WVIAC doubleheader with the Lady Cats against Davis & Elkins (WV) College on Thursday at 8 p.m. in the Sports Center, before traveling to Ohio Valley (WV) Univesity for another conference game on Saturday.

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