The Mountain Cats opened up a 12-point first half lead, but couldn't hold and suffered a narrow 81-76, PSAC loss to Indiana University (PA), Wednesday night in the Sports Center.  Josh Wise's 22 points and six rebounds led four Mountain Cat who scored in double figures.  With the loss, Pitt-Johnstown dropped to 6-5 overall and 4-3 in the PSAC West.
 
The Mountain Cats got off to a hot start and jumped out to a 10-5 lead behind Dale Clancy and Drew Magestro 3-pointers early in the first half.  IUP answered with a Jacobo Diaz 3-pointer to put the Crimson Hawks in front, 12-10, with 15:16 left in the half.
 
Another 3-pointer from Magestro gave the lead right back to Pitt-Johnstown and the Mountain Cats never trailed the rest of the first half.
 
Pitt-Johnstown stayed hot from deep going on a 11-2 run.  Three straight 3-pointers from Wise, followed by a Levi Masua offensive rebound and put-back gave the Mountain Cats a 31-17 lead at the 7:15 mark.
 
Pitt-Johnstown then opened up its largest lead of the half when Isaac Vescovi hit a jumper to make it 41-27 with 2:33 remaining. The Crimson Hawks got the first-half deficit back to nine at 43-34 on Willem Brandwijk basket in the paint with 28 seconds remaining.
 
The Crimson Hawks started off the second half on an 8-2 run, capped off on a Dante Lombardi layup, to cut it to 45-40 at 17:31, before the Mountain Cats pushed it back out to, 49-40 on baskets from Wise and Vescovi.
 
Two Lombardi free-throws three minutes later narrowed it to two, before the Crimson Hawks got a 3-pointer from Malik Miller midway through the half to take their first lead since early in the opening half first half.
 
The Mountain Cats regained the lead with 5:01 remaining when Dale Clancy drove into the lane and pulled up to make it 67-65. Another Lombard 3-pointer then tied at 71 with 2:47 to play.
 
It see-sawed back-and-forth until Anthony Glover hit his sixth 3-pointer of the night to give the Crimson Hawks a 79-74 lead with 20 seconds left.   Jacobo Diaz closed the game out making both free throws to set the final at 81-76.
 
Wise finished with 22 points, six rebounds and four steals, while Clancy had 20 points, six rebounds and five assists to lead Pitt-Johnstown.  Vescovi added 16 points, Magestro chipped in 10 points, and Levi Masua had eight points and a game-high nine rebounds for the Mountain Cats.
 
Clancy currently stands in 17^th-place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Scoring List (1,178 points), fourth on the assists list (443), and sixth on the 3-point field goals list (180).  Vescovi is 24^th-place on the Pitt-Johnstown Scoring List with 1,054 points.
 
After shooting 58% in the first half, Pitt-Johnstown ended the night shooting 52.5% (32-61) from the field, 7-22 from 3-point range, and 5-7 from the free-throw line.  IUP shot 50.9% from the floor, 15-27 from behind the 3-point line, and 10-11 from the charity stripe.
 
Glover's game-high 31 points, including 6-8 3-pointers paced five IUP players who scored in double figures.  Lombardi (14 points), Diaz (13 points), and Miller (12 points) also scored in double figures for the Crimson Hawks, who made it four straight wins and improved to 9-4 overall and 5-1 in the PSAC West.
 
The Mountain Cats will host a PSAC doubleheader with the women's team against Gannon University Saturday, before traveling to conference games at Edinboro on Monday and California (PA) on Wednesday.