Gannon turned a five-point halftime lead into a 20-point fourth quarter advantage on its way to a 64-46 PSAC Western Division victory over Pitt-Johnstown, Saturday afternoon in Erie.  Tori Moreland's 18 points led the way for Pitt-Johnstown, which fell to 8-12 overall and 5-10 in conference-play.
 
Maggie Mitchell's jumper and a pair of Nicole LaCava free-throws midway through the first quarter helped Gannon run out to an 8-0.  Pitt-Johnstown answered with six straight points to narrow the gap to 8-6 on a basket by Maurina Nunn and Alexis Hartwick's 3-pointer, but Mitchell's 3-pointer with a minute left in the quarter put the Golden Knights in front, 11-6.
 
Gannon outscored the Cats 10-4 over the first 5:36 of the second quarter to push its lead out to 21-10.  Pitt-Johnstown used a 10-0 run, capped by six straight free-throws from Maddie Shanahan and Gabrielle Smith, to cut it to one, before two Emma Oas free-throws and a layup by Elise Torrence with time running down put the Golden Knights up, 25-20, at the half.
 
Gannon extended its run to 12-0 to open the third quarter and build the lead to 33-20 on Lauren Tewes layup at 7:25.  The Cats got a bucket from Olivia McCabe and a 3-pointer from Moreland to cut it to eight just over a minute later, but three more or Mitchell's game-high 24 points helped the Golden Knights take a 43-31 advantage into the fourth quarter.
 
Gannon increased the lead to 51-31 on Oas' 3-pointer with six minutes remaining, before Moreland's 3-pointer at 1:01 got Pitt-Johnstown back to within 14.  However, that was as close as the Cats would get.
 
Moreland finished with a team-high 18 points, including 5-9 shooting from behind the arc.  Smith had 11 points and four rebounds, while Hartwick scored five points and grabbed five rebounds, and Shanahan pulled down six rebounds for Pitt-Johnstown.
 
McCabe currently stands in 29^th place on the Pitt-Johnstown All-Time Scoring List with 1,091 points and ninth on the All-Time Rebounding List with 753 rebounds.
 
Pitt-Johnstown, which was out-rebounded 38-30, was also held to just 27.6% (16-58) shooting.  The Cats were also 6-22 from 3-point range, and 8-11 from the charity stripe.  Gannon shot 44.2% (19-43) from the floor, 8-18 behind the 3-point line, and 18-22 from the free-throw line.
 
Along with Mitchell's 24 points, Gannon also got eight points and a game-high nine rebounds from Chelsea Rourke to make it five straight wins and improve to 12-8 overall and 9-5 in the PSAC West.
 
Pitt-Johnstown returns home to the Sports Center to host PSAC doubleheaders with the Mountain Cats against Edinboro University on Wednesday starting at 5:30 p.m. and Clarion University on Saturday starting at 1 p.m.