Concord (WV) University jumped out to a 19-point halftime lead and went on to hold off a late Pitt-Johnstown rally in an 81-72 victory over the Mountain Cats in Saturday's second round of the 2018 Indiana (PA) IRMC/Hilton Garden Inn Classic.  Josh Wise scored 18 points and John Paul Kromka had a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds to lead Pitt-Johnstown, now 1-1.
 
Concord started fast as used three first half runs to build a 19-point halftime advantage.
 
Simun Kovac's tip-in, followed by a Tommy Bolte 3-pointer gave the Mountain Lions a 15-4 lead six minutes into the game, until Pitt-Johnstown got a convention 3-point play from Marcin Wiszomirski and a 3-pointer from Jared Jakubick to cut it to 15-10 a minute later.
 
Concord countered with a 15-4 run over the next five minutes, capped by three of Jair Rodgers 27 first half points, to increase its lead to 28-12.  The Mountain Cats narrowed it to 32-22 with 4:04 left in the opening half on two straight bucket by Kromka.
 
However, the Mountain Lions outscored Pitt-Johnstown 14-5 the rest of the way, including Rodgers' sixth and seventh 3-pointers of the first half, to give Concord a 46-27 lead at the break.
 
Pitt-Johnstown came out in the second half on a 23-14 run over the first nine minutes to narrow the deficit to 60-50 on layups by Wise and Caiden Landis.
 
The Mountain Cats continued to cut into the deficit.  A free-throw by Kromka and a basket by Wise at 9:05 cut it to seven at 64-57, but Bolte's 3-pointer ended a 5-0 Concord spurt and pushed it out to 69-57 at 6:32.
 
The Mountain Cats got as close five at 77-72 on a Fred Mulbah bucket with :57 remaining, but the Mountain Lions made four straight free-throws in the final :31 to close out the nine-point victory.
 
Along with Wise and Kromka, Pitt-Johnstown also got 13 points from Landis, eight points, seven rebounds, and five assists from Mulbah, and seven points from Jakubick.
 
Pitt-Johnstown shot 43.3% (29-67) from the floor, but just 1-21 from behind the 3-point line.  The Mountain cats were also 13-19 from the free-throw line.  Concord was held to 39.7% (27-68) shooting, but hit 11-33 from 3-point range and 16-18 from the charity stripe.
 
After scoring 27 first half points, Rodgers ended with a game-high 35 points, including 4-14 from behind the arc, and five rebounds.  Bolte had 17 points and six rebounds, while Malik Johnson scored 11 points, and Trey Brisco chipped-in nine points and 10 rebounds to help the Mountain Lions even their record at 1-1.
 
Pitt-Johnstown will make its home debut with a non-conference game against Penn State-Fayette on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Sports Center, before traveling to the IUP Classic to take on LeMoyne (NY) and the University of the Sciences on November 23 and 24.