Men's Basketball 6/13/2013 3:11:00 PM

Bluefield State Upsets Mountain Cats, 83-76

02/05/2011

Bluefield State (WV) College erased an 11-point first half deficit and built a 12-point second half advantage on it way to upsetting the Mountain Cats, 83-76, Saturday night in Bluefield, W.Va. Nick Novak (Murrysville, Pa.) scored 17 points and Jordan Miller (Vinco, Pa.) hit five three-pointers to pace five Pitt-Johnstown players who scored in double-figures. The Mountain Cats fell to 13-6 overall and 10-5 in the WVIAC.
Danny Branch's (Washington, D.C.) basket five minutes into the game helped the Mountain Cats run out to a 17-6 lead.
Bluefield State cut it to five on on a Maurice Jordan jumper midway through the half, but Miller connected on a three-pointer to extend the Pitt-Johnstown lead lead to 11 at 27-16 just over a minute later.
However, the Big Blues outscored the Mountain Cats 27-10 over the final 9:18 of the first half to go up 43-37 at the break.
Bluefield State used a 12-2 run, capped by Omar London's three-pointer at 6:18, to pull to within one, before the Big Blues took their first lead of the night at 34-33 on Jordan's three-pointer with 4:38 left.
Jerome Johnson then hit a pair of free-throws with two seconds remaining to put Bluefield State up by six.
The Mountain Cats battled back to retake the lead on a basket and free-throw by Novak less than four minutes into the second half.
Pitt-Johnstown pushed it to a three-point advantage on Miller's three-pointer at at 15:50, but Bluefield State took the lead for good on a Hickman Simmons bucket with 13:20 remaining.
The Big Blues built it to as many as 12 at 68-56 on two Simmons' free-throws.
The Mountain Cats pulled to within three on Miller's fifth three-pointer of the night at 1:16, but Bluefield State hit 5-6 free-throws down the stretch to seal the win.
Novak and Miller combined for 35 points, while Patrick Grubbs (Turtle Creek, Pa.) collected a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds. Branch scored 12 points and dished out five assists, and Bill Luther (Gibsonia, Pa.) chipped in 12 points, including three three-pointers.
Branch, who holds the Mountain Cat career-record for three-pointers with 234, is tied with Devlin Herring (1994-98) for seventh-place on the Pitt-Johnstown All-Time Scoring List with 1,346 points. Grubbs stands in 14th-place on the scoring list with 1,131 points and fourth on the all-time rebounding list with 673.
Pitt-Johnstown shot 48.3% (28-58) from the field and 10-29 from three-point range. Bluefield State, which out-rebounded the Mountain Cats, 36-23, shot 52.9% (27-51) from the floor and 8-20 from behind the three-point line. The Big Blues were also 21-31 from the free-throw line, while Pitt-Johnstown only shot 12 free-throws and made 10.
London's game-high 19 points led four Bluefield State players who scored in double-figures. The Big Blues improved to 3-18 overall and 3-14 in the WVIAC.
The Mountain Cats host a conference doubleheader with the Lady Cats against Wheeling Jesuit (WV) University on Monday in the Sports Center. The Lady Cats tip-off at 6 p.m. followed by the men's game at 8 p.m. Pitt-Johnstown will then travel to Division II No 1-ranked West Liberty (WV) University on Thursday.

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