Men's Basketball 6/13/2013 3:41:00 PM

Late Free-Throws Sink Mountain Cats at W.V. State

01/11/2010

Andy Byer (Tire Hill, Pa.) scored 20 points and Patrick Grubbs (Turtle Creek, Pa.) added 19 points and 11 rebounds to help the Mountain Cats erase a 15-point first-half deficit and build a six-point second-half lead, but Darren Jones hit two free-throws with seven second left to give WVIAC-leading West Virginia State University a 77-75 victory on Monday. Pitt-Johnstown slipped to 5-5 overall and 1-4 in the conference.
West Virginia State raced out to a 10-4 lead three minutes into the game, but Danny Branch (Washington, D.C.) scored the next four points, and Byer hit a three-pointer to close a 7-0 run that put Pitt-Johnstown up 11-10 lead with 12 minutes left in the half.
The Yellow Jackets answered and outscored Pitt-Johnstown 16-8 over the next 5:48 to retake the lead and build it to 26-19 on Bo King's third three-pointer of the half at the 6:13 mark.
Byer followed with a jumper to pull the Mountain Cats to within 26-23 45 seconds later, but it never got any closer in the first half. Will Collins hit four of West Virginia State's nine first-half three-pointers to push the advantage to 41-26 at 1:21, before the Yellow Jackets took a 41-28 halftime lead.
Pitt-Johnstown came out on fire in the second half. Grubbs' scored eight quick points to highlight a 15-1 run, capped by Nick Novak's (Murrysville, Pa.) bucket, that gave the Mountain Cats a 43-42 lead with 15:18 left.
The teams exchanged the lead four times over the next five minutes, until Byer's three-pointer gave Pitt-Johnstown a 55-50 lead midway through the half. The Yellow Jackets tie it at 60 3:30 later, but Rudy Roberts' (Cleveland, OH) basket the next trip down the floor gave the Mountain Cats the lead back.
Two Grubbs' free-throws extended the lead to 70-64 with 2:28 on the clock, but Jones connected on a pair of free-throws for West Virginia State to tie the score at 75 with :15 remaining. Justin Banks then made a steal for the Yellow Jackets with seven seconds to play. Jones then knocked down a pair of free-throws after he was fouled by Branch to give West Virginia State the 77-75 victory.
The Mountain Cats, ranked second in the country in field goal percentage, shot 50% (30-60) from the floor, while holding the Yellow Jackets to just 36.4% (28-77). However, West Viginina State hit 13 three-pointers, compared to just 5-14 for Pitt-Johnstown.
Byer led Pitt-Johnstown with 20 points on 8-12 shooting from the field and 4-7 from three-point range. Byer also had six rebounds, while Grubbs finished with 19 points on 10-12 shooting and 11 rebounds. Novak had 12 points, and Branch collected 10 points and 10 rebounds. Roberts scored six points and pulled down nine rebounds.
Jones led all scorers with 23 points and nine rebounds. Collins had 16 points and Kin chipped in 13 points. Fred Harris had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Yellow Jackets, who improved to 10-1 overall and stayed unbeaten in conference play at 6-0.
The Mountain Cats travel to Davis & Elkins (WV) College on Thursday for a WVIAC game, before hosting conference rival Alderson-Broaddus (WV) College on Saturday as part of a doubleheader with the Lady Cats. The Lady Cats will tip-off at 1 p.m., followed by the men's game at 3 p.m.

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