Men's Basketball 6/13/2013 3:50:00 PM

Mountain Cats Fall in Overtime at Fairmont State

01/28/2010

Fairmont State (WV) University erased a 15-point deficit with nine minutes to play to force overtime, before dealing the Mountain Cats 90-85 setback, Thursday night in WVIAC play. Danny Branch (Washington, D.C.) hit seven three-pointers on his way to a career-high 33 points, but Pitt-Johnstown slipped to 8-8 overall and 4-7 in the WVIAC.
After the Mountain Cats built a 15-point lead with 8:54 to play, the Falcons stormed back into the game. Custis' three-pointer with 16 seconds left cut Pitt-Johnstown's lead to 75-74. Branch was fouled and made one of two free-throws to put the Mountain Cats up 76-74 with 15 seconds on the clock. Custis followed with two free-throws to knot the score at 76 and force overtime.
In the overtime, Fairmont State outscored the Mountain Cats, 14-9 to secure the win. The Falcons opened-up an 85-77 lead midway through the extra period on Terrance Green's bucket. Rudy Roberts (Cleveland, OH) made a pair of free-throws at 1:02 to cut it to 87-83, but it never got any closer.
Fairmont State scored the first four points, but Andy Byer's (Tire Hill, Pa.) jumper tied the score at six, 2:30 into the first half and ignited a 14-2 Mountain Cat run. Danny Branch (Washington, D.C.) connected on three of his 13 first half points 3:30 later to cap the run and give Pitt-Johnstown an 18-8 lead.
The Falcons battled back and outscored the Mountain Cats 29-15 the rest of the half. Fairmont State pulled to within one on Mike Henderson's lay-up at 5:54, before Ryland Newman's three-pointer put Fairmont State back into the lead, 30-29, with 3:21 left.
The Falcons extended the lead to eight points with 1:11 remaining on Steve Custis' three-pointer, but Nick Novak's (Murrysville, Pa.) fastbreak basket narrowed Pitt-Johnstown's deficit to 37-33 at halftime.
Pitt-Johnstown opened the second half on a 21-7 run, highlighted by four more three-pointers from Branch, to rebuild its lead to 10 at 54-44 at 13:51.
Fairmont State scored the next four points to make it 54-48, but the Mountain Cats had an answer and took their largest lead of the game at 64-49 on Robert's dunk with nine minutes to play, setting the stage for the Falcons' comeback.
Pitt-Johnstown shot 52.5% from the field, 10-16 from three-point range and 11-18 from the free-throw line. The Falcons ended the night shooting 45.2% from the floor, 6-23 from behind the three-point line and 18-29 from the charity stripe.
Branch led all scorers with 33 points on 11-15 shooting, 7-8 from three-point range and 4-5 from the free-throw line. Patrick Grubbs (Turtle Creek, Pa.) had 13 points, while Roberts added 12 points and six rebounds off of the bench. Novak tallied eight points, seven rebounds and four assists, while Byer had eight points, and Noah Hartung (Butler, Pa.) grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
Custis' 26 points led five Fairmont State players who scored in double-figures. Pete O'Connor had 17 points and pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds, and Isaac Thornton collected 16 points and eight rebounds to help the Falcons improve to 14-2 overall and 9-2 in the WVIAC.
The Mountain Cats travel to Glenville State (WV) College on Saturday, before hosting a WVIAC doubleheader with the Lady Cats against Seton Hill University on Monday beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the Sports Center.

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