Men's Basketball 6/13/2013 3:14:00 PM

Mountain Cats Fall at No 1-ranked West Liberty

02/10/2011

West Liberty (WV) University, ranked No. 1 in NCAA Division II, used a 23-6 run to start the game and connected on 19-three-pointers to help build a 35-point second half lead, en route to handing the Mountain Cats a 100-66 road loss on Thursday. Nick Novak (Murrysville, Pa.) scored 17 points for Pitt-Johnstown, which has dropped it last three games and fell to 13-8 overall and 10-7 in the WVIAC.
Patrick Grubbs (Turtle Creek, Pa.) scored the opening basket of the game for the Mountain Cats, but it was all West Liberty the rest of the way.
The Hilltoppers used six three-pointers to open-up an 23-6 lead on Barry Shetzer's three-pointer at 12:16.
Novak's basket and free-throw on the next Pitt-Johnstown possession cut it to 23-9, but West Liberty quickly pushed it out to 36-13 on a Chris Morrows three-pointer at the eight-minute mark.
The Hilltoppers then took their largest lead of the half on Alex Falk's jumper with 5:30 remaining, before going into the halftime break up 51-28.
John Wolosinczuk's three-pointer early in the second half pushed the West Liberty to 59-32, before Mark Shadowens' buck at 13:31 made it a 35-point game at 74-39.
Danny Branch (Washington, D.C.) hit two three-pointers, and Bill Luther (Gibsonia, Pa.) connected for three to cap a 9-0 Pitt-Johnstown run to cut it to 74-48, but it never got any closer.
Novak paced four Mountain Cats who scored in double-figures with 17 points. Branch hit four three-pointers and scored 14, while Grubbs had 11 points and eight rebounds, and Luther collected 11 points and nine rebounds.
Branch, who holds the Mountain Cat career-record for three-pointers with 242, also ranks sixth on the Pitt-Johnstown All-Time Scoring List with 1,376 points. Grubbs stands in 13th-place on the scoring list with 1,158 points and fourth on the all-time rebounding list with 691.
Pitt-Johnstown ended the night shooting 37.9% (25-66) from the field, 6-22 from three-point range, and 10-12 from the free-throw line. West Liberty, which held a 52-34 advantage in rebounding, shot 42.7 (32-75) from the floor, 19-47 from behind the three-point line, and 17-20 from the charity stripe.
Shetzer led all scorers with 24 points, including five three-pointers and nine rebounds. Corey Pelle scored 14 points and Falk and Wolosinczuk each scored 12 points for the Hilltoppers, who improved to 22-0 and 18-0 in conference-play.
The Mountain Cats will host their final four regular season home games of the season beginning with a doubleheader with the Lady Cats against Alderson-Broaddus (WV) College for Breast Cancer Awareness Day on Saturday. The Lady Cats will tip-off at 2 p.m., followed by the men's game at 4 p.m. The Mountain Cats will also host Shepherd (WV) University on Thursday at 8 p.m.

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