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University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Athletics

PITT-JOHNSTOWN MOUNTAIN CATS

Men's Basketball

Second Half Run Leads Mountain Cats Over Vulcans

Johnstown, PA

Box Score
Pitt-Johnstown used a 21-5 second half run to break open a tie game in a 78-64 PSAC victory over California University (PA), Saturday afternoon in the Sports Center.  Bill Luther's  game-high16 points led three Mountain Cats who scored in double figures.  Pitt-Johnstown improved to 10-5 overall and 3-2 in the PSAC Western Division.
 
Drew Cook's jumper staked California (PA) out to an early 9-4 lead but Pitt-Johnstown outscored the Vulcans 22-12 over the next nine minutes to build its own five-point lead on a Patt Palo lay-up with 6:11 left in the half.
 
California (PA) came back to retake the lead 34-31 on another Cook bucket with 45 seconds left.
 
Luther's lay-up cut it to one on the Mountain Cats' next trip down the floor, but Jake Jacubec was fouled with less than a second on the clock.  Jacubec connected on one of two free-throws to give the Vulcans a slim 35-33 halftime advantage.
 
The Mountain Cats slowly took control in the second half and used a 21-5 run to break it open.  Luther's 3-pointer at 11:51 put Pitt-Johnstown up by five, before Adam Shaheen's put-back increased it to 58-48 at the nine-minute mark.
 
Pitt-Johnstown kept it going and built the lead to 67-51 on Palo's layup at 6:35 that close out the run.
 
The Mountain Cats extended it to as many 20 on a Rasaun Mosley free-throw with 3:15 to play, before coasting to the 14-point victory.
 
Luther scored a game-high 16 points, including four 3-pointers, to lead the Mountain Cats.  Palo finished with 15 points and four rebounds, while Shaheen netted 13 points and grabbed four rebounds.  Pitt-Johnstown also got nine points from Jake Laravie off the bench, and eight points and five rebounds from Andrew Cressler in the victory.
 
Luther is currently 20th on the Mountain Cat All-Time Scoring List with 1,055 points and third on the career-3-Point Field Goals List with 224.
 
Pitt-Johnstown shot an impressive 54.2% (32-59) from the floor, 6-12 from behind the 3-point line, and 8-13 from the free-throw line.  California (PA) was held to just 34.4% (22-64) shooting.  The Vulcans hit 9-24 from 3-point range, and 11-18 from the charity stripe.
 
Arman Marks and Jacubec each scored 13 points, while Alonzo Murphy and Cook netted 10 points apiece in the loss for the Vulcans.  California (PA) fell to 6-9 overall and 1-4 in conference-play.
 
The Mountain Cats travel to PSAC games at Seton Hill University on Wednesday and Gannon University on January 22, before hosting a conference doubleheader with the Lady Cats against Mercyhurst University on January 25.  The Lady Cats will tip-off at 2 p.m., with the men's game to follow at 4 p.m.
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