Pitt-Johnstown, seeded fifth in the Western Division for next week's PSAC Tournament, got 20 points from Josh Wise and 19 from Isaac Vescovi to help the Mountain Cats open-up a 21-point first half lead on their way to a 71-64 PSAC victory at Mercyhurst to close out the regular season on Wednesday.  Pitt-Johnstown enters the conference tournament at 15-11 overall and 13-9 in the PSAC.
 
Six straight points from Vescovi to start and Daly Clancy's 3-pointer at 14:31 helped Pitt-Johnstown run out to a 15-5 lead.
 
The Mountain Cats increased it to 31-15 six minutes later on Wise's jumper, before Malcolm Walters' 3-pointer ended the Mercyhurst drought.
 
Pitt-Johnstown continued to build on its lead and increased it to 21 on layups from Olando King, Jr. and Vescovi layup at the 3:16 mark, but the Lakers counted with a 9-2 run to close out the half, capped by Darien Knowles' layup as time expired, to cut it to 41-27 at the break.
 
Two straight buckets from King, Jr. To open the second half got the Mountain Cats' lead back out to 18, but Mercyhurst outscored Pitt-Johnstown 20-12 over the next eight minutes to make it 57-47 with 10:43 to play on Walters' 3-pointer.
 
The Lakers kept clawing back.  Walters' 3-pointer at 2:15 narrowed it to 65-62.
 
However, Dale Clancy's basket with 1:09 remaining got Pitt-Johnstown's lead back out to six, and the Mountain Cats were able to hold on.
 
Wise's 20 points led four Mountain cat double figure scorers.  Vescovi had 19 points, King, Jr. 13 points and nine rebounds, and Clancy finished with 10 points, eight rebounds, and six assists.  Pitt-Johnstown also got seven points and seven rebounds from Levi Masua.
 
Clancy currently stands in ninth-place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Scoring List (1,447 points), third on the assists list (518), and fifth on the 3-point field goals list (230).  Vescovi is 12^th-place on the Pitt-Johnstown Scoring List with 1,376 points.
 
Pitt-Johnstown, which out-rebounded the Lakers 36-30, shot 51.9% (27-52) from the floor, 5-13 from 3-point range, and 12-22 from the free-throw line.  Mercyhurst was held to 41.1% (23-56) shooing, 10-24 from behind the 3-point line, and 8-15 from the charity stripe.
 
The Lakers, who clinched the sixth seed for the PSAC Tournament, got 20 points from Walters and 12 points from Lorenzo Collier.
 
With the loss, the Lakers slipped to 12-13 overall and 9-12 in the PSAC Western Division.
 
Pitt-Johnstown will open the 2018 PSAC Tournament on Monday as the No. 5 seed in the Western Division at Edinboro or Slippery Rock.