Men's Basketball 6/13/2013 3:07:00 PM

Mountain Cats Hold Off OVU, 88-81

01/27/2011

Pitt-Johnstown squandered a 13-point second half lead, but recovered late to hand Ohio Valley (WV) University an 88-81conference loss, Thursday night in the sports Center. Bill Luther (Gibsonia, Pa.) scored a career-high 23 points, including seven three-pointers, and Nick Novak (Murrysville, Pa.) added 23 points and seven assists to help the Mountain Cats win their third straight and improve to 12-4 overall and 9-3 in the WVIAC.
Ohio Valley started fast and ran out to a 7-0 lead 2:40 into the game on a basket by Donavin Vinson.
The Mountain Cats recovered and outscored the Fighting Scots 20-9 over the next eight minutes to take a four-point advantage. Nick Novak's (Murrysville, Pa.) jumper at 11:20 gave Pitt-Johnstown its first lead , before Bill Luther (Gibsonia, Pa.) connected on one of his fourth first-half three-pointers to make it 20-16 with 9:16 left.
Ohio Valley then used a 9-0 run, capped by Micah Mills' three-pointer, to rebuild the lead to five, but Luther hit back-to-back three's to put the Mountain Cats back on top, 26-25 at 7:37.
It stayed close the rest of the first half. Five straight points from Danny Branch (Washington, D.C.) pushed the Pitt-Johnstown lead to 43-38 with one minute left, before Pitt-Johnstown took a 45-40 lead into the halftime break.
Luther stayed hot to start the second half to help the Mountain Cats extend the lead to 13 four minutes into the second half. Luther eight of Pitt-Johnstown's first 14 points, including two more three-pointers, to put the Mountain Cats up 59-46.
The Fighting Scots stormed back with a 24-9 run to retake the lead by two. David White's basket with 14:11 to play cut the Ohio Valley deficit to six, but Pitt-Johnstown quickly got it back out to 10 at 63-53 on Branch's dunk.
Just after, the Mountain Cats were assessed a technical foul. The Fighting Scots scored 10 straight to knot it at 63. Patrick Grubbs (Turtle Creek,Pa.) finished a traditional three-point play to give the lead back to Pitt-Johnstown, but Ohio Valley eventually battled back to close the run and take a 70-68 lead on Kendall Allison's lay-up at 7:45.
Following three ties and three lead changes over the next five minutes, the Mountain Cats took a 79-74 lead on Luther's seventh three-pointer with 2:29 on the clock. Ohio Valley was able to get it down to two, but that was it. Pitt-Johnstown hit 6-8 free-throws down the stretch and went on to the seven-point victory.
Luther finished with a career-high 23 points on 8-10 shooting from the field and 7-9 from three-point range. Luther also grabbed seven rebounds, while Novak had 23 points, including 9-10 from the free-throw line, and seven assists. Grubbs added a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Branch collected 14 points and five rebounds to round out the double-figure scorers.
Branch, who holds the Mountain Cat career-record for three-pointers with 228, also ranks eighth on the Pitt-Johnstown All-Time Scoring List with 1,320 points. Grubbs stands in 17th-place on the scoring list with 1,072 points and fourth-place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Rebounding List with 643.
Pitt-Johnstown, which out-rebounded the Fighting Scots 39-28, shot 51.6% (32-62) from the field, 10-25 from three-point range and 14-20 from the free-throw line. Ohio Valley shot 49.2% (30-61) from the floor, 10-27 from behind the three-point line and 11-13 from the charity stripe.
Vinson scored 20 points to lead four Fighting Scots who scored in double figures. With the loss, Ohio Valley fell to 5-11 overall and 5-8 in the WVIAC.
The Mountain Cats travel to the University of Charleston (WV) for a WVIAC game on Saturday, before hosting a conference doubleheader with the Lady Cats against Fairmont State (WV) University on Wednesday in the Sports Center. The Lady Cats tip-off at 6 p.m., followed by the men's game at 8 p.m.

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