Men's Basketball 6/14/2013 9:06:00 AM

Mountain Cats Suffer 77-63 Loss at Seton Hill

02/20/2010

Seton Hill University climbed out to a nine-point halftime lead and used a 13-4 run in the second half to pull away in a 77-63 victory over the Mountain Cats, Saturday night. Patrick Grubbs (Turtle Creek, Pa.) led the way with 19 points and eight rebounds for Pitt-Johnstown, which fell to 14-11 overall and 10-10 in the WVIAC.
Steve Heidenthal (Clymer, Pa.) gave the Mountain Cats their only lead of the first half, 6-5, 4:24 into the game, but Seton Hill used an 11-4 run over the next 3:30 to go up 16-10 on Chris Giles' basket at the 11:10 mark.
Pitt-Johnstown scored four straight, and Andy Byer's (Tire Hill, Pa.) jumper from the corner cut it to 16-14 at the midway point.
However, the Griffins outscored the Mountain Cats 18-11 the ret of the way to build a nine-point halftime advantage. Emmanuel Jackson's bucket pushed the lead to 26-18 with 7:36 remaining, before Seton Hill took its largest lead of the half at 34-23 on Giles lay-up with just over a minute left.
Patrick Grubbs' (Turtle Creek, Pa.) followed with a lay-up as time was running out to get the deficit into single-digits at 34-25 at the intermission.
Jackson scored to start the second half to match Seton Hill's 11-point first half lead. Grubbs hit a free-thow to make it 38-30 at 17:32, but the Griffins used another run to build it to 51-34 on Giles jumper with 13:20 to play.
Pitt-Johnstown answered with five straight on a Jordan Miller (Mineral Point, Pa.) three-pointer and two free-throws from Grubbs to make it 51-39.
However, Seton Hill quickly matched its 17-point lead on Cody Boone's dunk and extended it to 20 at 60-40 on a Justin McCoy three-pointer at 10:28.
Ozren Bjelogrlic gave the Griffins their largest lead of the game at 65-42. Danny Branch (Washington, Pa.) scored six points to ignite an 11-0 run to get the Mountain Cats to within 12 at 65-53 with just under five minutes to play, but it never got any closer.
Grubbs led all scorers with 19 points on 8-14 shooting and 3-6 from the free-throw line. His eight rebounds tied for game-high, while Branch collected 13 points and five rebounds. Miller had eight points, six rebounds and three assists, and Rudy Roberts (Cleveland, OH) chipped in eight points and four rebounds.
Branch stands in second-place on Pitt-Johnstown's All-Time Three-Point Field Goals List with 175. He is 15 away from Steve Scorpion for the top-spot. Andy Byer's (Tire Hill, Pa.) 133 three-pointers are eight shy of Dwight Hines for eighth-place on the list.
Jackson's 18 points led four Seton Hill players who scored in double-figures. Bjelogrlic scored 16 points and Giles and Boone had 14 apiece for the Griffins, who improved to 11-13 overall and 9-10 in the WVIAC.
Pitt-Johnstown will celebrate Senior Night with a conference doubleheader against Fairmont State (WV) University on Tuesday with the women's game beginning at 5:30 in the Sports Center, before wrapping up the regular season at Shepherd (WV) University on Saturday.

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