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University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Athletics

PITT-JOHNSTOWN MOUNTAIN CATS

Men's Basketball

Mountain Cats Defeat #13 West Liberty State 110-104 And Claim Sole Possession of First Place In WVIAC

02/11/2008

Chris Gilliam (Baltimore, MD) and Quinton Davis (Pittsburgh, Pa.) each scored 24 points and the Mountain Cats held off a late West Liberty State (WV) College rally for a 110-104 win and sole possession of first place in the WVIAC, Monday night in the Sports Center. Head Coach Bob Rukavina's team has won five straight games and improved to 17-5 overall and 14-2 in conference play.
Pitt Johnstown opened up a 19-point lead with 1:46 to play in the first half led by Davis' 21 points on 7-7 from three-point range, before taking 51-39 halftime lead. Pitt Johnstown came out in the second half on a 17-4 run over the first 4:11 to increase the lead 68-43. The Hilltoppers, ranked #13 in the country and #4 in the East Region, answered with a 37-12 run of their own to cut the deficit to 88-80 with 7:17 to play. Pitt Johnstown rebuilt the lead to 14 points at the 3:02 mark, before West Liberty State cut it to 107-104 with :29 left. However, that was as close as the Hilltoppers would get, and the Mountain Cats held on for the six-point win.
Davis finished with 24 points on 8-11 shooting from the field and a Mountain Cat record tying eight three pointers on 8-8 from three-point range. Davis also grabbed seven rebounds, while Gilliam was 10-13 from the field and 4-5 from the free-throw line. Gilliam's seven rebounds tied Davis for team-high. Marcus Tullis (Johnstown, Pa.) scored 20 points and grabbed six rebounds, and Matt Ionadi (Pittsburgh, Pa.) chipped in 18 points, five rebounds and a game-high 10 assists. William Sharpe (Johnstown, Pa.) collected 11 points, four rebounds, seven assists and four steals, and Danny Branch (Washington, D.C.) tallied 10 points to round out the six Mountain Cats who scored in double figures.
With his 24 points, Gilliam now has 1,580 career points and stands in second place on the Mountain Cat All-time Scoring List, 493 points away from Justin Walther (1996-2000) for first place on the scoring list. With his seven rebounds, Gilliam stands in fifth place on the All-Time Rebounding List with 610. He is now four rebounds shy of Chris Rhames (1995-98) four fourth place on the rebounding list.
The Mountain Cats shot an impressive 66.1% (41-62) from the field, 66.7% (12-18) from three-point range and 72.7% (16-22) from the free-throw line. Pitt Johnstown held the Hilltoppers to just 36-78 (46.2%) shooting for the game. West Liberty State hit 14 three-pointers, but was just 18-27 (66.7%) from the charity stripe.
Corey Pelle led six Hilltoppers who scored in double figures with 22 points. John Wolsinczuk (20 points), Ben Howlett (19 points), Scott Mirich (17 points), Chris Banal (14 points) and Michael Mathey (12 points) also scored in double figures for West Liberty State, which fell 19-3 overall and 13-3 in the WVIAC.
The Mountain Cats travel to Ohio Valley (WV) University on Thursday, before returning home to host Fairmont State (WV) University and celebrate Senior Night on Saturday, as part of a WVIAC doubleheader with the Lady Cats. The Lady Cats will play tip-off at 5:30 p.m., with the men's game to follow at 7:30 p.m.
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