Men's Basketball 6/14/2013 9:11:00 AM

West Virginia State Erases 17-point deficit to End Mountain Cats' Season

03/04/2010

No. 2-seeded West Virginia State University outscored No. 7 Johnstown 58-36 in the second half, including using a 20-0 run over a four-minute span to erase a 17-point deficit, and end the Mountain Cats' season with an 86-74 loss in Thursday's WVIAC Tournament Quarterfinals at the Charleston Civic Center in Charleton, WV. Danny Branch (Washington, D.C.) and Nick Novak (Murrysville, Pa.) scored 19 points apiece and Patrick Grubbs (Turtle Creek, Pa.) added 11 points and a game-high 17 rebounds for the Mountain Cats, now 17-12.
Branch's three-pointer from the corner opened the scoring, before Andy Byer's (Tire Hill, Pa.) jumper in the lane gave the Mountain Cats an 8-2 lead at 15:50.
West Virginia State scored sven straight over the next 2:14 to take its only lead of the half, 9-8, on Jason Emerson's three-pointer at 13:36.
However, Pitt-Johnstown took control and outscored the Yellow Jackets 30-19 the rest of the way to build a 10-point halftime advantage. Two of Steve Heidenthal's (Clymer, Pa.) eight first half points off the bench with just over seven minutes remaining made it 22-14. Byer hit a three-pointer at 1:30 to increase the lead to nine, before Jordan Miller (Mineral Point, Pa.) connected for three as time expired to make it 38-28 at the break.
The Mountain Cats extended the lead to 45-30 on a Branch free-throw 1:37 into the second half. West Virginia State got it to within 11 on Josh Miller's bucket, but Novak's three-pointer pushed it to 55-38 with 14:49 left.
The Yellow Jackets got right back into the game with a 20-0 run over the next 3:48, capped by Emerson's three-pointer from the top of the key that put West Virginia State back into the lead at 58-55 at the 11-minute mark.
Novak's lay-up at 10:15 gave the lead back to Pitt-Johnstown, 59-58, but the Yellow Jackets regained the lead for good on Justin Banks' lay-up and free-throw with nine minutes to play.
Banks' lay-up with a minute left built it to 86-71, before the Yelow Jackets cruised to the 12-point victory.
Pitt-Johnstown shot 46.6% from the field, 6-19 from three-point range and 14-17 from the free-throw line. West Virginia State, which turned 19 Mountain Cat turnovers into 32 points, ended the day shooting 47% from the floor, 6-20 from behind the three-point line and 18-24 from the charity stripe.
Branch had 19 points five rebounds and four assists, while Novak collected 19 points and five assists. Grubbs had 11 points and 17 rebounds, and Heidenthal chipped in 10 points and five rebounds. Byer finished with seven points and six assists.
Branch currently stands in 17th-place on the Pitt-Johnstown All-Time Scoring List with 1,047 points. He is two points shy of Carlos Cogsdell for 16th-place on the scoring list. With his three three-pointers against Shepherd, Branch stands in second-place on Pitt-Johnstown's All-Time Three-Point Field Goals List with 186. He is four away from Steve Scorpion for the top-spot. Byer's 140 three-pointers rank ninth on the list.
Miller's 26 points led alll scorers and four West Virginia State players who scored in double-figures. Darren Jones had 13 points, Bo King had 13 and Banks rounded out the double-figure scorers with 11. The Yellow Jackets improved to 26-3.

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