Men's Basketball 6/14/2013 9:36:00 AM

West Liberty State Uses 15 Three-Pointers to Sink Mountain Cats

02/12/2009

West Liberty State (WV) College hit 15 three-pointers, including 11 in the first half to climb out to a 19-point point lead, on its way to dealing the Mountain Cats an 86-65 road loss, on Thursday. Quinton Davis (Pittsburgh, Pa.) scored 21 points for Pitt-Johnstown, which dropped its second straight game and fell to 16-6 overall and 11-4 in the WVIAC.
Ben Howlett scored 19 points, including 5-5 from three-point range, in the first 7:40 of the game to give the Hilltoppers a 24-10 lead. West Liberty State increased its advantage to 40-21 on Barry Shetzer's fourth three-pointer of the half at 5:06. Pitt-Johnstown answered with a 9-2 run to cut the deficit to 42-30 with 1:13 to play on Marcus Tullis' (Johnstown, Pa.) free-throws, before the Mountain Cats went into halftime, trailing 45-30.
The Hilltoppers pushed the lead out to 22 points 4:34 into the second half. Tullis' dunk at 14:22 capped a 9-0 Mountain Cat run, but West Liberty State countered with a 10-0 run of its own to build the lead to 69-46 on John Wolosinczuk's three-pointer with 11:57 to play. Pitt-Johnstown was never able to recover and suffered the 21-point loss.
Davis scored 21 points on 6-13 shooting from the field, 3-9 from three-point range and 6-8 from the free-throw line, while Tullis added 17 points and seven rebounds. Head coach Bob Rukavina also got six points and five rebounds from Danny Branch (Washington, D.C.), and four points and a team-high nine rebounds from William Sharpe (Johnstown, Pa.). Davis grabbed five rebounds and dished out four assists, and Patrick Grubbs (Turtle Creek, Pa.) and Andy Byer (Tire Hill, Pa.) chipped in five points apiece for the Mountain Cats.
Tullis is currently fourth on the Pitt-Johnstown scoring list with 1,363 points and 10th on the rebounding list with 539. Tullis is 10 points away from Chris Rhames (1993-98) for third place on the scoring list and 11 rebounds behind Davis on the rebounding list. Davis is in eighth place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Scoring List (1,260 points), ninth on the rebounding list (550 rebounds) and eighth on the all-time assist list (328 assists). Davis needs 43 points to tie Rich Ragan (1998-03) for seventh place place on the scoring list. He is also six rebounds shy of Carlos Cogsdell (2001-05) for eighth place on the rebounding list and three assists away from Joey Tutchstone (2003-06) for seventh place on the assists list. Sharpe stands in second place on the assist list with 447, 48 assists shy of Emmanuel Richardson (1996-98) for first place.
The Mountain Cats were held to a season-low 36.5% (23-63) shooting. Pitt-Johnstown did hit 7-20 from three-point range. West Liberty State finished the night shooting 46.9% (30-64) from the field and an impressive 15-36 (41.7%) from behind the three-point line. The Hilltoppers, who held a 44-35 rebounding advantage, were also 11-13 from the charity stripe.
Howlett ended with 21 points after scoring 19 in the first half to lead West Liberty State. Shetzer tallied 19 points, and Cory Pelle had 15 points and nine rebounds. Wolosinczuk's rounded out the Hilltoppers who scored in double figures with 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. West Liberty State improved to 16-6 overall and 11-4 in the WVIAC.
The Mountain Cats host a WVIAC doubleheader with the Lady Cats against Wheeling Jesuit (WV) University on Saturday for Breast Cancer Awareness Night. The Lady Cats will tip-off at 5:30 p.m., followed by the men's game at 7:30 p.m.

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