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University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Athletics

PITT-JOHNSTOWN MOUNTAIN CATS

Men's Basketball

Mountain Cats Upset at Shepherd, 73-68, in Final Regular Season Game

02/23/2008

The Mountain Cat men's basketball team, regular season champions of the WVIAC and ranked #5 in the East Region, could not hold onto a four-point halftime lead and suffered a 73-68 loss at Shepherd (WV) University in Saturday's regular season finale. The Mountain Cats got game-highs of 23 points and 10 rebounds from Chris Gilliam (Baltimore, MD), but slipped to 20-6 overall and 17-3 in league play. Pitt Johnstown, which earned a first round bye, will take on the winner of the Davis & Elkins-Concord game in Thursday's Quarterfinals of the WVIAC Tournament in Charleston, WV at 3:00 p.m.
Pitt Johnstown opened-up a 19-11 lead nine minutes into the game, but Shepherd kept battling back and cut the deficit to 34-30 at halftime. After three ties to start the second half, the Rams took a 49-47 lead with 13:04 to play on Abdullah Dosu's lay-up. Pitt Johnstown was never able to regain the lead. Shepherd increased the lead to six points on four occasions. The Mountain Cats cut it to 69-68 on Quinton Davis' (Pittsburgh, Pa.) three-pointer with 1:07 to play, but that was as close at Pitt Johnstown would get.
Gilliam connected on 8-11 from the field and 7-8 from the free-throw line, pulled down 10 rebounds and dished out three assists to lead three Mountain Cats who scored in double figures. Sophomore guard Andy Byer (Tire Hill, Pa.) hit three three-pointers and finished with 13 points off of Head Coach Bob Rukavina's bench, while Davis rounded out the double-figure scorers with 11 points and five rebounds. Pitt Johnstown also got eight points from William Sharpe (Johnstown, Pa.), six points from Danny Branch (Washington, D.C.) and five rebounds from Steve Heidenthal (Clymer, Pa.) in the loss.
With his 23 points, Gilliam now has 1,666 career points and stands in second place on the Mountain Cat All-time Scoring List, 407 points away from Justin Walther (1996-2000) for the top spot. With his 10 rebounds, Gilliam moved into third place on the All-Time Rebounding List with 645. He is now 230 rebounds shy of Walther for second place on the rebounding list.
Pitt Johnstown, the nation's leader in field goal percentage, was held to 44.4% (20-45) shooting from the field. The Mountain Cats did hit six three-pointers and made 22-27 from the free-throw line. The Rams ended the evening shooting 46.6% (27-58) from the field with nine three-pointers. Shepherd was 10-15 from the charity stripe.
Shepherd's Jonathan Motichka scored 17 points and pulled down six rebounds to lead three Rams scored in double figures. Justin Jarmin (16 points) and (11 points) also scored in double figures for the Rams, who ended the regular season with a 15-12 overall record and a 9-11 record in the WVIAC.
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