Men's Basketball 6/13/2013 3:45:00 PM

Mountain Cats Hold Off Shepherd For 92-90 Win

01/18/2010

Nick Novak (Murrysville, Pa.) scored a career-high 23 points and the Mountain Cats shot 61.8% from the field, but Pitt-Johnstown, who led wire-to-wire, had to hold on after letting a 16-point lead slip away in a 92-90 victory over Shepherd (WV) University, Monday night in the Sports Center. The Mountain Cats snapped a four-game losing streak and improved to 6-7 overall and 2-6 in the WVIAC.
The Mountain Cats took their largest lead of the game at 86-70 with 5:59 left on Rudy Roberts' (Cleveland, OH) lay-up. That's when the Rams caught fire and outscored Pitt-Johnstown 20-6 down the stretch to cut it to 92-90 with the ball and 11 seconds on the clock. Derek Gallagher's three-pointer from the corner as time ran out hit the side of the rim and fell short, securing the two-point Mountain Cat win.
The Mountain Cats, who shot 63.3% shooting in the first half, ran out to a 7-0 lead on Danny Branch's (Washington, D.C.) three-pointer a minute into the game.
Shepherd cut it to 15-12 on Aeron Spencer's lay-up and free-throw four minutes later, but Nick Novak's (Murrysville, Pa.) jumper quickly pushed Pitt-Johnstown's lead to double-digits at 26-15 at 11:33.
Branch's basket with 6:50 left gave the Mountain Cats their largest lead of the half at 35-23, before the Rams used a 9-2 run over the next 3:19 to make it 37-32.
However, the Mountain Cats rebuilt the advantage to 12 on Patrick Grubbs' (Turtle Creek, Pa.) bucket in the paint with 2:13 on the clock, before taking a 46-38 halftime lead.
It was more of the same for Pitt-Johnstown in the second half. Novak's lay-up to start the half extended the lead back into double-figures at 48-38, then to 12 at 57-45 on Andy Byer's (Tire Hill, Pa.) free-throws at 16:26.
Shepherd battled back again with a a 10-1 spurt to cut it to 58-55 on a Tucker Lucas basket, but once again, Pitt-Johnstown answered to go back up by nine on Grubbs' third straight lay-up at 13:12.
Pitt-Johnstown wrapped up the night shooting 61.8% from the field, 6-12 from three-point range and 18-23 from the free-throw line. shepherd shot 49.2% from the field with 12 three-pointers. The Rams were 14-17 from the charity stripe.
Novak had 23 points on 8-10 shooting from the field, 2-2 from behind the three-point line and 5-6 from the free-throw line to lead four Mountain Cats who scored in double-figures. Grubbs had 18 points and five rebounds, while Branch, who moved into seventh-place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Career Three-Point Field Goals-Made List with 141, had 15 points, five rebounds and five assists. Byer chipped in 12 points, and Noah Hartung (Butler, Pa.) had eight points and a game-high nine rebounds.
Dave Karlson led Shepherd with 20 points. Tyrone Roach collected 19 points,a nd Gallagher and Jonathan Motichka each scored 14 points for the Rams,w ho dropped their eighth straight game and fell to 1-12 overall and 1-7 in the WVIAC.
The Mountain Cats travel to Ohio Valley (WV) University for a WVIAC game on Thursday, before hosting a conference game against West Virginia Wesleyan College on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Sports Center.

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