Men's Basketball 6/13/2013 3:25:00 PM

Mountain Cats Reach WVIAC Quarters With Win Over Seton Hill

03/01/2011

Danny Branch (Washington, D.C.) scored 23 points and Patrick Grubbs (Turtle Creek, Pa.) added 21 second-half points to lead the No. 3-seeded Mountain Cat basketball team to an 86-76 victory over No. 14 Seton Hill University in Tuesday's First Round of the 2011 WVIAC Men's Basketball Tournament in the Sports Center. Pitt-Johnstown, 18-9 on the season, advances to the WVIAC Quarterfinals to take on #6-seeded Alderson-Broaddus (WV) College on Thursday at 1 p.m. at the Charleston (WV) Civic Center.
Seton Hill jumped out to a 6-3 lead, but Jordan Miller (Vinco, Pa.) hit two straight three-pointers to put the Mountain Cats into the lead.
The Griffins regained the lead at 12-11 on Chris Giles' dunk at 14:43. However, that was the last time Seton Hill would be in front the rest of the way.
Branch's three-pointer with 7:54 left pushed the Pitt-Johnstown lead to seven, before Paul Weatherly (Johnstown, Pa.) knocked down a free-throw with 55 second remaining in the half to make it a nine-point advantage at 42-33.
Seton Hill scored the final five points to make it 42-38 at the break.
The Mountain Cats came out and took control to start the second half. Pitt-Johnstown built the lead to 67-55 on two Grubbs' free-throws at 10:50 and never let the Griffins get closer that four points.
Kellen Holmes' bucket 4:40 later cut the Seton Hill deficit to 72-68, but the Mountain Cats responded with 14-8 run to close out the game.
Nick Novak (Murrysville, Pa.) hit a pair of free-throws to give Pitt-Johnstown its largest lead of the night at 86-73, before the Mountain Cats cruised the the 10-point victory.
Branch scored 23 points and grabbed five rebounds, while Grubbs netted all 21 of his points in the second half. Grubbs finished shooting 8-11 from the floor and 5-6 from the free-throw. Grubbs also had six rebounds, while Novak chipped in 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Miller tallied 13 points and five assists, and Bill Luther (Gibsonia, Pa.) rounded out the double-figures scorers with 10 points and seven rebounds.
Branch, who holds the Mountain Cat career-record for three-pointers with 267, also ranks fourth on the Pitt-Johnstown All-Time Scoring List with 1,508 points. Grubbs stands in 10th-place on the scoring list with 1,280 points and third on the all-time rebounding list with 729.
The Mountain Cats, who held a 42-29 advantage on the glass, ended the night shooting 47% (31-66) from the field, 8-24 from three-point range, and 16-18 from the free-throw line. Seton Hill shot 47.6% (30-63) from the floor, but just 6-23 from behind the three-point line. The Griffins were also 10-13 from the charity stripe.
Giles' game-highs of 24 points and nine rebounds paced Seton Hill. Matt Miller added 21 points and a game-high seven assists for the Griffins, whose season comes to an end with a 10-20 record.

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