Mountain Cat Basketball Holds on for, 60-59, Home Victory Over Clarion

12/07/2005

Head coach Bob Rukavina's Mountain Cats improved to 6-2 on the season with a 60-59 home victory over Clarion University Wednesday night in game-two of a doubleheader in the Sports Center. The Golden Eagles had a chance to win the game with 1.4 seconds to play, but Bobby Franklin's half-court shot bounced off the front of the rim and Pitt Johnstown held on for the one-point win. Sophomore forward Chris Gilliam (Baltimore, MD) poured in a game-high 25 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds to lead the Mountain Cats.
Gilliam, who has led Pitt Johnstown in scoring all eight games this season, was 10-12 from the field and 5-6 from the free-throw line. With his 10-12 shooting performance, Gilliam is now shooting 74.7% from the field for the year. Senior guard Joey Tutchstone (Vandergrift, Pa.) had 11 points, while red-shirt freshman forward Kyle Goldcamp (Pittsburgh, Pa.) added 10 points, five rebounds and four blocks off of Coach Rukavina's bench. Fellow red-shirt freshman forward Marcus Tullis (Johnstown, Pa.) chipped in nine points and five rebounds in the win.
Along with the last second three-point attempt, Clarion also had a chance to take the lead with :03 to play, but Goldcamp blocked Terrance Vaughns' lay-up attempt and junior guard J.J. Schumacher (Castle Shannon, Pa.) grabbed the rebound and called a timeout for Pitt Johnstown.
The Mountain Cats conected on 46.0% (23-50) of their field goals and 76.9% (10-13) of their free-throws, while the Golden Eagles shot just 23-60 (38.3%), 9-28 (32.1%) from behind the three-point line and 4-5 (80.0%) from the free-throw line. Pitt Johnstown finished 4-15 (26.7%) from three-point range.
Chris Buchanan's 15 points and seven rebounds paced Clarion. Vaughns scored 14 points and Michael Clarke had 10 points for the Golden Eagles, who dropped to 2-3 on the year.
The Mountain Cats travel to the East Stroudsburg University Tournament this wekend where they will take on Penn State-Harrisburg in the first round on Friday at 3:00 p.m. Pitt Johnstown will then break for Finals and the Holiday Season, before tipping-off the second semester at home against West Virginia Wesleyan on January 2 at 7:30 p.m.

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