Mountain Cat Men Battle, But Fall Short At Home Against #12 Bowie State

01/22/2005

Head Coach Bob Rukavina and the Mountain Cat men's basketball team played their first game in the Sports Center since December 11. However, they faced an very tough test against #12-ranked Bowie State (MD) University. The Mountain Cats clung to a 33-32 halftime lead, but the Bulldogs clawed their way back to defeat Pitt Johnstown, 75-64. Senior forward Paul Byer (Johnstown, Pa.) led the Mountain Cats, now 7-9 on the year, with 18 points.
     Pitt Johnstown built an eight-point lead on Dwight Hines' (Aliquippa, Pa.) layup with 14:49 to play in the game, but Bowie State immediately began to cut into the lead. Three minutes later, the Bulldogs took the lead 49-48. Bowie State never gave up that lead and went on to defeat the Mountain Cats by 11 points.
     Byer, who now has 978 career points, connected on 7-15 from the field and 4-9 from three-point range, while senior center Carlos Cogsdell (Homestead, Pa.) chipped in 15 points on 7-14 shooting and a team-high nine rebounds.  Cogsdell now has 511 career rebounds, one shy of moving into a tie with Glen Fisher (1976-1981) for seventh place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Rebounding List.
     Hines finished with 16 points, including four three-pointers, and six assists. Junior guard Joey Tutchstone (Vandergrift, Pa.) added four points, three rebounds and a game-high nine assists for Pitt Johnstown.
     Although neither team shot extremely well from the field (41.3% for Pitt Johnstown and 44.4% for Bowie State), both teams played solid defense. Bowie State got the job done from the free-throw line, connecting on 14-16, while the Mountain Cats attempted only two free-throws for the entire night. Bowie State also out rebounded Pitt Johnstown 44-31 and held a 19-13 advantage on the offensive end. Pitt Johnstown stayed in the game with its hot shooting from three-point range. The Mountain Cats hit 11-24 from behind the three-point line, compared to just 5-21 for the Bulldogs.
     Bowie State's Letheal Cook paced the Bulldogs with game-highs of 29 points on 13-21 shooting and 13 rebounds. Derick Payne and Brent Campbell chipped in 15 and 12 points respectively, and Isaiah Johnson grabbed 11 rebounds to help Bowie State improve to 14-2 on the season.

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