Men's Basketball 6/13/2013 3:05:00 PM

Mountain Cats Roll Over D&E, 98-80

01/17/2011

The Mountain Cats ran out to a 24-point halftime lead with the aid of a 35-15 first half run, en route to handing Davis & Elkins (WV) College a 98-80 WVIAC loss, Monday night in the Sports Center. Danny Branch (Washington, D.C.) scored 26 points, and Patrick Grubbs (Turtle Creek, Pa.) added 24 points and a career-high 18 rebounds to lead Pitt-Johnstown, which snapped a two-game losing skid and improved to 10-4 overall and 7-3 in the WVIAC.
The Mountain Cats double-up Davis & Elkins 16-8 five minutes into the game on Bill Luther's (Gibsonia, Pa.) three-pointer.
Malik Tinsley's lay-up and free-throw 1:43 later pulled the Senators to withing four at 18-14. However, that's as close as it would be the rest of the half.
Pitt-Johnstown outscored Davis & Elkins 35-15 over the final 13 minutes to build a 24-point halftime advantage. Jordan Miller's (Vinco, Pa.) basket nine minutes in gave the Mountain Cats their first double-digit lead, before three of Branch's 15 first half points made it 36-22 at 6:36.
Pitt-Johnstown continued to expand the lead. A Noah Hartung (Butler, Pa.) lay-up put the Mountain Cats up by 22,and Miller connected on three-pointer with under a minute remaining to give Pitt-Johnstown a 53-29 lead at the break.
The Senators opened the second half on an 16-8 run, capped by a Reggie Cook three-pointer at 15:53, to cut it to 61-45.
The Mountain Cats quickly got their lead back to 19 with a basket from Luther and a free-throw from Branch a minute later.
Davis & Elkins scored five straight to get to within 14 at 64-50 at the 13-minute mark, but Branch and Nick Novak (Murrysville, Pa.), and Grubbs combined for the next 10 Pitt-Johnstown points to rebuild the lead to 22.
Grubbs' free-throw gave Pitt-Johnstown its largest lead of the night at 84-57 with 7:22 to play, before the Mountain Cats rolled to the 18-point victory.
Branch paced four Mountain Cats who scored in double-figures with 26 points on 10-14 shooting from the field, 5-6 from three-point range and 1-2 from the free-throw line. Grubbs scored 24 points and pulled down a career-high 18 rebounds (13 in first half), while Novak chipped in 15 points and four assists. Luther rounded-out the double-figure scorers with 14 points and six rebounds. Miller finished with seven points and four assists.
Branch, who holds the Mountain Cat career-record for three-pointers with 224, also ranks ninth on the Pitt-Johnstown All-Time Scoring List with 1,289 points. Grubbs stands in 21st-place on the scoring list with 1,033 points and fifth-place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Rebounding List with 623.
The Mountain Cats, who out-rebounded the Senators 44-25, finished the night shooting 58.5% (38-65) from the floor, 8-16 from behind the three-point line and 14-21 from the free-throw line. Davis & Elkins shot 43.1% (28-65) from the field, 12-30 from three-point range and 12-16 from the charity stripe.
Cook led all scorers with 35 points, including 27 in the second half. Tim turner collected 14 points for the Senators, who dropped to 4-10 overall and 3-7 in the WVIAC.
The Mountain Cats travel host WVIAC doubleheaders with the Lady Cats against Seton Hill University on Saturday at 4 p.m. and Ohio Valley (WV) University on Thursday, Jan. 27 at 8 p.m.

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