Men's Basketball 6/14/2013 9:39:00 AM

Mountain Cats Pull Away From Ohio Valley For 82-65 Win

02/19/2009

Marcus Tullis (Johnstown, Pa.) scored a game-high 29 points and grabbed seven rebounds to help the Mountain Cat basketball team shake off a sluggish start and break open a four-point halftime lead in Thursday night's 82-65 victory over Ohio Valley (WV) University in the Sports Center. Pitt-Johnstown raised its overall record to 18-6 and improved to 13-4 in the WVIAC.
The Mountain Cats opened up a 23-15 lead on Tullis' lay-up and free-throw with 10:42 to play in the first half. Ohio Valley used a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to 23-21 2:13 later, but Pitt-Johnstown answered with a 13-5 run of its own to build its largest lead of the half at 36-26 on Patrick Grubbs (Turtle Creek, Pa.) basket with 4:47 left. Ohio Valley battled back again to pull within 39-35 at the half.
Pitt-Johnstown slowly began to pull away early in the second half. The Mountain Cats pushed the lead to double-digits on Grubbs' layup at 13:40. Danny Branch's (Washington, D.C.) three-pointer with 9:35 left gave Pitt-Johnstown a 19-point lead at 68-49. Ohio Valley clawed back to within nine points with 6:02 remaining, but the Mountain Cats ended the game by outscoring the Fighting Scots 14-6 to secure the 17-point win.
Tullis led all scorers with 29 points on 12-17 shooting and 5-6 from the free-throw line, while Matt Ionadi (Pittsburgh, Pa.) chipped in 19 points on 7-8 shooting, including 5-5 from three-point range. Grubbs rounded out the Mountain Cats who scored in double figures with 15 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Quinton Davis (Pittsburgh, Pa.) tallied eight points, five rebounds and four assists, and William Sharpe (Johnstown, Pa.) scored four points and dished out a game-high nine assists.
Tullis is currently fourth on the Pitt Johnstown scoring list with 1,417 points and ninth on the rebounding list with 557. Tullis is 73 points away from Quinn Harris (1988-92) for third place on the scoring list and three rebounds behind Davis on the rebounding list. Davis is in eighth place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Scoring List (1,282 points), eighth on the rebounding list (560 rebounds) and seventh on the all-time assist list (336 assists). Davis needs 21 points to tie Rich Ragan (1998-03) for seventh place place on the scoring list. He is also four rebounds shy of Harris (1988-92) for seventh place on the rebounding list and 60 assists away from Tony Mazonkey (1975-79) for sixth place on the assists list. Sharpe stands in second place on the assist list with 466, 29 assists shy of Emmanuel Richardson (1996-98) for first place.
The Mountain Cats, who out rebounded Ohio Valley 42-34, ended the night shooting 52.4% (33-63) from the field, 8-19 from three-point range and 8-9 from the free-throw line. The Fighting Scots shot 40.3% (29-72) from the field and just 5-21 from behind the three-point line.
Steve Luckhardt's 15 points led the way for Ohio Valley. Sean Whiting scored nine points, and Rodney Everage pulled down seven rebounds for the Fighting Scots, who slipped to 5-19 overall and 3-14 in the WVIAC.
The Mountain Cats travel to Fairmont State (WV) University on Saturday, before returning home to host a WVIAC doubleheader with the Lady Cats against Salem International (WV) University on Monday in the Sports Center. The Lady Cats will tip-off Monday's games at 5:30 p.m., followed by the men's game at 7:30 p.m.

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