Box Score
Dale Clancy, Jake Laravie and Isaac Vescovi all scored 14 points, to help Pitt-Johnstown turn a tight two-point halftime lead into a 71-61 PSAC West victory at Mercyhurst University on Saturday.  The Mountain Cats improved to 11-6 overall and 6-5 in the PSAC Western Division.
 
Nohah Vickers' 3-pointer gave Mercyhurst an early 5-point lead, but the Mountain Cats came back with a 16-4 run, capped by a pair of Clancy 3-pointers and a basket from Laravie, to go up 17-10 at the 12:45 mark of the first half.
 
The Lakers responded with a quick 9-2 run to knot it at 19 on John Majors' lay-up two minutes later, before baskets from Levi Masua and Vescovi got Pitt-Johnstown's lead back out to five at 25-20.
 
Mercyhust kept it close and got a 3-pointer from Lorenzo Collier with 1:32 left to narrow the gap to 33-31 at the break.
 
The Mountain Cats slowly took control in the second half.  Six points from Rasaun Mosley and a pair of Laravie free-throws six minutes into the half rebuilt Pitt-Johnstown's lead to 45-37.
 
A.J. Leahey's 3-pointer then made it 50-41, before the Lakers cut it to four on Durrell McDonald's jumper with 8:10 to play.
 
Pitt-Johnstown never let it get any closer.  Josh Wise's conventional 3-point play at 3:35 pushed Pitt-Johnstown's lead into double digits at 65-53.
 
Connor Polce's basket with 21 seconds left to play got the Lakers back to within eight, but Clancy's free-throws set the final at 71-61.
 
Clancy finished with 14 points and four assists, while Vescovi had 14 points and five rebounds, and Laravie, who ranks fourth in the country in assist to turnover ratio, had 14 points to lead a balanced Mountain Cats scoring effort.  Leahey tallied eight points and seven rebounds, and Wise had eight points off the bench.  Pitt-Johnstown also got seven points and a game-high 13 rebounds from Masua, and six points and three rebounds from Mosley.
 
Leahey stands in 11^th-place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Scoring List with 1,363 points, eighth on the all-time rebounding list with 613, and fourth on the all-time 3-point field goals list with 214.
 
The Mountain Cats shot 46.0% (23-50) from the field and 4-11 from 3-point range.  Pitt-Johnstown also connected on 21 of its 24 free-throws.  Mercyhurst was held to 36.8% (21-57) shooting, including just 7-26 from behind the 3-point line.  The Lakers were 12-16 from the charity stripe.
 
Malcolm Walters, Vickers, Collier, and Polce all scored nine points for the Lakers, who slipped to 7-8 overall and 5-6 in the PSAC West.
 
Pitt-Johnstown travels to a PSAC game at Slippery Rock on Wednesday, before returning home to host a conference doubleheader with the Lady Cats against Seton Hill on January 21 at 1 and 3 p.m. in the Sports Center.