Men's Basketball 6/14/2013 9:43:00 AM

Mountain Cats Celebrate Senior Day and Alumni Day With 73-70 Win Over Shepherd

02/28/2009

Quinton Davis (Pittsburgh, Pa.) scored a game-high 23 points, including a pair of free-throws with :15 left, to lead the Mountain Cats to a 73-70 victory over Shepherd (WV) University, on Saturday's Senior Day and Alumni Day in the Sports Center. Pitt-Johnstown secured its fourth straight 20-win season and improved to 20-7 overall and 15-5 in the WVIAC.
Prior to the game, head coach Bob Rukavina and the Mountain Cat basketball program recognized this year's seniors, Quinton Davis (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Matt Ionadi (Pittsburgh, Pa.), William Sharpe (Johnstown, Pa.) and Marcus Tullis (Johnstown, Pa.).
Pitt-Johnstown opened up a 13-7 lead seven minutes into the game on two of Davis' 16 first half points. Shepherd battled back with a 17-12 run to cut the deficit to 25-24 at the 3:39 mark, but the Mountain Cats outscored the Rams 11-6 in the final four minutes to build a 36-30 halftime advantage.
Pitt-Johnstown quickly pushed the lead to 42-30 on Sharpe's basket 1:40 into the second half, but Shepherd used an 11-0 run over the next 3:22 to cut the Mountain Cat lead to 42-41. Pitt-Johnstown recovered and built the lead back to 10 at 56-46 on Andy Byer's (Tire Hill, Pa.) three-pointer with 9:52 to play. The Rams came back again and cut the lead to 68-66 with :42 remaining, but a pair of free-throws from Davis with :15 left, followed by a break-away dunk by Sharpe with :03 on the clock helped the Mountain Cat ice the win.
Davis led all scorers with 23 points on 6-15 shooting from the field and 10-11 from the free-throw line. Davis also pulled down five rebounds and dished out five assists, while Tullis added 13 points, five rebounds and five assists. Patrick Grubbs (Turtle Creek, Pa.) rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 points and six rebounds. Coach Rukavina also eight points and seven assists from Sharpe and eight points and four rebounds from Ionadi.
Tullis is currently fourth on the Pitt-Johnstown scoring list with 1,455 points and eighth on the rebounding list with 572. Tullis is 35 points away from Quinn Harris (1988-92) for third place on the scoring list and six rebounds behind Davis for seventh place on the rebounding list. Davis is in seventh place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Scoring List (1,345 points), seventh on the rebounding list (578 rebounds) and seventh on the all-time assist list (346 assists). Davis needs one point to tie Devlin Herring (1994-98) for sixth place on the scoring list. He is also 19 rebounds shy of Alan Young (1970-73) for sixth place on the rebounding list and 50 assists away from Tony Mazonkey (1975-79) for sixth place on the assists list. Sharpe stands in second place on the assist list with 485, 10 assists shy of Emmanuel Richardson (1996-98) for first place.
The Mountain Cats, who owned a 36-34 advantage in rebounding, shot 43.1% (25-58) from the field, 3-17 from three-point range and 20-27 from the free-throw line. Shepherd ended the evening shooting 46.6% (27-58) from the field, 8-26 from behind the three-point line and 8-12 from the charity stripe.
Tyrone Roach scored 21 points to lead four Rams who scored in double-figures. Jonathan Motichka and Liki Turner each tallied 15 points, and Justin Jarmin collected 12 points and nine rebounds. Turner grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds for the Rams, who fell to 12-15 overall and 11-9 in the WVIAC.
The Mountain Cats will host an opening round WVIAC Tournament game against Davis & Elkins (WV) College on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Sports Center. A victory on Tuesday, would send the Mountain Cats to the WVIAC Quarterfinals on Thursday in Charleston, WV .

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