Box Score
Dale Clancy hit seven 3-pointers and matched his career-high with 26 points as Pitt-Johnstown squandered an 11-point second half lead, but recovered to pull away for a 79-68 PSAC-Western Division victory at Clarion University on Saturday. The Mountain Cats snapped a two-game losing skid and improved to 13-8 overall and 8-7 in the PSAC West.
A pair of 3-pointers from
A.J. Leahey and one from Clancy capped a 12-0 Pitt-Johnstown run that put the Mountain Cats up 18-8 six minutes in.
Clarion got six straight points from Jamani Pierce, including a dunk at 8:26, to get the Golden Eagles back to within three at 24-21, before
Jake Laravie's lay-up with just under four minutes left in the half extended Pitt-Johnstown's lead back out to nine.
B.J. Andrews knocked down a jumper to help the Golden Eagles get it down to four, but a 3-pointer by
Isaac Vescovi and a pair of Laravie free-throws gave the Mountain Cats a 41-32 advantage at the half.
After Vescovi's basket increased the lead to 11 on Pitt-Johnstown's first possession of the second half, Clarion came back to outscore the Mountain Cats 21-9 over the next 11 minutes to regain the lead 53-52 on a Manny Powell jumper.
Pitt-Johnstown quickly regained the lead on Clancy's 3-pointer, and Vescovi's lay-up with 5:10 to go increased the Mountain Cat lead to 61-57.
Clancy followed with his seventh 3-pointer of the night to extend it to 64-57 and Pitt-Johnstown was able to retake control. Leahey's 3-pointer and Vescovi's dunk got the lead back to 10 at 69-59 with 3:25 to play, and the Mountain Cats went on to make 7-of-8 free-throws in the final 1:12 to secure the win.
Clancy ended the night with a game-high 26 points, including 7-11 shooting from 3-point range for Pitt-Johnstown. Laravie had 18 points (6-6 free-throws), four rebounds, and five assists, while Leahey had a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds and Vescovi collected 15 points and six rebounds.
Leahey currently stands in ninth-place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Scoring List with 1,416 points. He is also tied for fifth with Ian Vescovi (2011-15) on the all-time rebounding list with 648, and in fourth-place on the all-time 3-point field goals list with 224.
The Mountain Cats shot an even 50% (27-54) from the field, including 13-24 from 3-point range. Pitt-Johnstown was also 12-14 from the free-throw line. Clarion was held to 40.7% (24-59 shooting from the floor and 5-19 from behind the 3-point line. The Golden Eagles were 15-20 from the charity stripe.
Powell had 17 points and Pierce tallied 13 points and seven rebounds to lead four Golden Eagles who scored in double figures.
With the loss, Clarion has dropped its last 11 games and fell to 5-15 overall and 3-12 in the PSAC West.
The Mountain Cats travel to a PSAC game Gannon on Wednesday, before returning home to host a conference doubleheader with the Lady Cats against Edinboro on February 4 at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. in the Sports Center.
