Men's Basketball 6/14/2013 9:49:00 AM

Tullis Named MVP and Mountain Cats Win WVIAC Tournament Title with 74-73 Double Overtime Win Over Alderson-Broaddus (WV) College

03/07/2009

Marcus Tullis (Johnstown, Pa.) poured in 30 points on his way to earning Most Valuable Player honors, as the #4-seeded Mountain Cats defeated #2-seeded Alderson-Broaddus (WV) College 74-73 in double overtime to win their first ever WVIAC Tournament Championship Saturday night at the Civic Center in Charleston, WV. Pitt-Johnstown, 24-7 on the year, earns an automatic bid to next week's NCAA Regional Tournament.
Along with Tullis' honors, William Sharpe (Johnstown, Pa.) garnered the Springer Sportsmanship Trophy, while Quinton Davis (Pittsburgh, Pa.) joined Tullis on the WVIAC All-Tournament Team.
Tullis' free-throws six minutes into the game gave Pitt-Johnstown a 14-8 lead, but Allderson-Broaddus responded with a 9-0 run over the next 2:35 to climb in front 17-14. Danny Branch's (Washington, D.C.) three-pointer tied the scored the next time down the floor. The Battlers pushed the lead out to 30-24 with 3:21 to play, but the Mountain Cats outscored Alderson-Broaddus 7-1 the rest of the way, including Davis' three-pointer as time ran out, to go into the halftime break tied at 31.
The teams exchanged the lead six times in the first 4:33 of the second half, before the Battlers, took a 46-41 lead on two Zach Green free-throws at 13:05. Pitt-Johnstown scored the next five points, capped by Sharpe's three-pointer, to tie the score at 46 with 11:06 left. The Mountain Cats extended the run to 12-7 to give Pitt-Johntown a 53-50 lead with 4:19 remaining. With the score tied 53-53, Tullis' jumper off of an in bounds pass hit the side of the rim as time expired to force overtime.
In the overtime, Pitt-Johnstown opened up a 61-57 advantage on back-to-back baskets by Patrick Grubbs (Turtle Creek, Pa.) with 1:07 on the clock. A pair of Davis free-throws with :07 remaining increased the lead to 65-62, but Sam Liggins' desperation three-pointer banked in as time expired to force a second overtime.
Davis' three-pointer and Tullis' bucket put Pitt-Johnstown 70-65 one minute into the second overtime. The Battlers came back to cut it to 74-73. The with :01 left, Stan Hall's put-back rimmed out and the Mountain Cats claimed the WVIAC tournament title.
Tullis led all scorers with 30 points on 11-19 shooting from the field and 8-11 from the free-throw line. Tullis grabbed 10 rebounds, while Davis finished with 21 points on 6-15 shooting, 3-4 from three-point range and 6-6 from the free-throw line. Davis also pulled down eight rebounds and dished out six assists. Grubbs added a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds. Sharpe collected eight points, five rebounds and a game-high eight assists.
Tullis is currently third on the Pitt-Johnstown scoring list with 1,553 points and seventh on the rebounding list with 600. Tullis is 209 points away from Chris Gilliam (2004-08) for second place on the scoring list and five rebounds behind Davis for sixth place on the rebounding list. Davis is in fifth place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Scoring List (1,431 points), sixth on the rebounding list (605 rebounds) and seventh on the all-time assist list (364 assists). Davis needs 59 points to tie Quinn Harris (1988-92) for fourth place on the scoring list. He is also eight rebounds shy of Chris Rhames (1995-95) for fifth place on the rebounding list and 32 assists away from Tony Mazonkey (1975-79) for sixth place on the assists list. Sharpe stands in first place on the assist list with 516.
The Mountain Cats shot 45% (27-60) from the field, 6-15 from three-point range and 14-17 from the free-throw line. The Battlers ended the night shooting 38.7% (29-75) from the floor, just 4-19 from behind the three-point line and 11-15 from the charity stripe.
Hall scored 30 points and had six rebounds to lead Alderson-Broaddus. Green added 11 points and 11 rebounds, while Montel Lee tallied nine points and a game-high 13 rebounds for the Battlers, who fell to 26-5 on the year.

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