Men's Basketball 6/13/2013 3:30:00 PM

Mountain Cats Fall in OT at WJU to Open WVIAC Play

11/24/2009

Danny Branch (Washington, D.C.) poured in a game-high 26 points, but Wheeling Jesuit erased an 11-point first half lead and handed Pitt-Johnsotwn a 91-88 overtime road loss to tip-off the 2009-10 WVIAC schedule, Tuesday night. The Mountain Cats are 1-1 overall and 0-1 in conference play.
In a first half full of runs, Wheeling Jesuit opened-up a 7-3 lead 1:37 into the game, but Branch's three-pointer tied the score at seven 1:35 later. The Mountain Cats continued its 19-5 run and took a 22-12 lead when Nick Novak (Murrysville, Pa.) hit two of Pitt-Johnstown's eight first-half three-pointers, and Patrick Grubbs (Turtle Creek, Pa.) followed with a lay-up with 13:25 to play.
Andre Harris' three pointer cut the Cardinals' deficit to 32-29, before Andy Byer (Tire Hill, Pa.) scored five of the next eight Pitt-Johnstown points to increase the lead to 40-29 at the 4:25 mark.
However, Wheeling Jesuit answered with a 12-2 run of its own to cut the lead to 42-41 at halftime.
The Cardinals tied the score at 46 early in the second half, before taking a 59-56 lead on two Harris free-throws with just over 13 minutes left to play.
Branch answered with a basket to put the Mountain Cats up 61-60 at the 11:25 mark, but Wheeling Jesuit outscored Pitt-Johnstown 12-1 over the next 2:35 to build a 71-61 lead.
Pitt-Johnstown battled back with three straight buckets from Grubbs and back-to-back three-pointers from Jordan Miller (Mineral Point, Pa.) and Byer to cut it to 74-72 with 3:18 on the clock.
With the score tied at 79 and :05 left, Branch's jumper in the lane rimmed out to force overtime.
After a tie and three lead changes in the overtime period, Harris connected on a three-pointer, and Steve Catich made a lay-up to put Wheeling Jesuit up for good at 88-83 with less than two minutes to play. Byer's three-pointer to tie the game at the buzzer fell short and Pitt-Johnstown suffered the three-point loss.
Branch led all scorers with 26 points on 10-18 shooting, 3-8 from three-point range and 3-3 from the free-throw line. Grubbs had 19 points and nine rebounds, and Byer added 15 points (3 three-pointers), four rebounds and seven assists. Head Coach Bob Rukavina also got nine points from Novak, eight points, six rebounds and a game-high nine assists from Noah Hartung (Butler, Pa.) and six rebounds from Rudy Roberts (Cleveland, OH).
Ricardo Gaddy paced four Wheeling Jesuit players who scored in double-figures with 20 points. Steve Catich chipped in 19 points, while Obi Ukwuoma and Harris each netted 18 points. Ukwuoma and Harris also had 12 and eight rebounds, respectively for the Cardinals, who improved to 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the WVIAC.
The Mountain Cats return home to start a five-game home stand against California University (PA) on Saturday at 4 p.m. as part of a doubleheader with the Lady Cats in the Sports Center. The Lady Cats will take on Ohio Dominican University at 2 p.m.

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