Men's Basketball Loses Heartbreaker at Bloomsburg to Open Season

11/16/2005

Head Coach Bob Rukavina (17th season) and the Mountain Cat basketball team suffered a tough, 87-85, loss at Bloomsburg University Wednesday night to open the 2005-06 season. Bloomsburg hit a three-pointer with less than a second to play in the game to break an 84-84 tie. The Huskies were then given a technical foul for running onto the court. Pitt-Johnstown made one of the two free-throws, then missed a long three-pointer at the buzzer. Sophomore forward Chris Gilliam (Baltimore, MD) led three Mountain Cats who scored in double-figures with 25 points.
Gilliam, who shot 11-14 from the field and 3-6 from the free-throw line also pulled down four rebounds. The Mountain Cats got 18 points on 6-9 shooting from three-point range from senior guard Nick Mezyk (Johnstown, Pa.) and 17 points, including four three-pointers, from fellow senior guard Steve Scorpion (Murrysville, Pa.). Junior guard J.J. Schumacher (Castle Shannon, Pa.) scored eight points and dished out a game-high 11 assists, while red-shirt freshmen forwards Marcus Tullis (Johnstown, Pa.) and Kyle Goldcamp (Pittsburgh, Pa.) added eight and seven points, respectively in their collegiate debuts. Tullis and Goldcamp also pulled down team-highs of five rebounds apiece.
Both Pitt-Johnstown and Bloomsburg shot over 52% from the field for the game. However, the Huskies connected on 14 of their 26 three-point attempts, while the Mountain Cats were 10-24 from behind the three-point line. Pitt-Johnstown also finished the game 11-17 from the free-throw line, Bloomsburg was 7-12.
Matt Jefferson's game-high of 35 points on 14-19 shooting from the field led the Huskies. Bloomsburg also got 15 points from Mike Cheatle and 10 points and a game-high eight rebounds from Billy Bryan.
Pitt-Johnstown will host the 2005 Pitt-Johnstown Tip-Off Classic on Friday and Saturday. The Mountain Cats will take on West Liberty State (WV) College on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and the University of District of Columbia on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. In Friday's first game, U.D.C. will play Columbia Union (MD) College at 2:30 p.m. On Saturday, West Liberty State will take on Columbia Union at 5:30 p.m.

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