Box Score
Matt Palo scored 17 points to lead eight Mountain Cats who scored in double figures and Pitt-Johnstown shot 63% from the floor in a 118-40 season-opening blowout of Penn State-New Kensington, Friday night in the Sports Center.
 
Dorian Broadwater knocked down a 3-pointer on Penn State-New Kensington's first possession of the game, but the Mountain Cats answered with back-to-back 3-pointers from Rich Audu and never gave up the lead again.
 
The Mountain Cats, who shot 62% from the field in the opening half, pushed it into double figures at 22-11 on Dale Clancy Jr.'s lay-up and free-throw with just over 12 minutes remaining in the half.
 
Pitt-Johnstown wasn't done there.  Two of Palo's 12 first half points extended it to 36-16.  The Mountain Cats pushed it out to a 39-point advantage on an Isaac Vescovi bucket with 11 seconds left, before going into the halftime break leading 57-21.
 
It was more of the same in the second half for Pitt-Johnstown, which improved on its first half shooting by connecting on 64% of their shots in the second half..  Ian Vescovi's dunk built it to 40 at 63-23, then to 50 at 80-30 at 11:49 another Clancy 3-pointer.
 
Pitt-Johnstown set the final and took its largest lead of the night at 118-50 on Ajan Smith's breakaway lay-up.
 
Along with Palo, Smith netted 16 points, while Clancy and Isaac Vescovi each scored 15 points.  Roshon Fields had 11 points and seven rebounds, and Levi Masua had 11 points and eight rebounds.  Ian Vescovi finished with a double-double 10 points and 10 rebounds.
 
The  Mountain Cats shot 63% (46-74) from the field, 10-23 from behind the 3-point line, and 16-23 from the free-throw line.  Pitt-Johnstown held Penn State-New Kensington to just 24.6% (14-57), including just 5-24 from 3-point range.
 
Joshua Jenkins scored nine points to lead the Lions, while Matthew Sutton and Broadwater had seven points apiece.
 
Pitt-Johnstown will host a doubleheader with the Lady Cats on Wednesday against Clarion University to open-up the 2014-15 PSAC schedule.  The Lady Cats will tip-off at 5:30 p.m. in the Sports Center, with the men's game to follow at 7:30 p.m.