Pitt-Johnstown cut a 12-point deficit with 5:15 to play down to two, but the Mountain Cats could not complete the comeback and suffered a tough, 64-61, PSAC loss at Gannon, Wednesday night.  Fred Mulbah's 16 points led the way for Pitt-Johnstown, which slipped to 9-5 overall and 4-3 in the PSAC West.
 
Gannon connected on 7 of its 12 first half 3-pointers to climb out to a five-point halftime advantage.
 
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Joe Fustine erased a four-point deficit to start and put the Golden Knights in front 12-6 seven minutes into the opening half.
 
Pitt-Johnstown got a 3-pointer from Mulbah to tie it 13 and a 3-pointer from Jared Jakubick knotted it at 16 five minutes later, but Gannon hit three more from behind the arc, including a pair by Victor Olawoye, to help the Golden Knights rebuilt its lead to 27-20.
 
Another bucket from Jakubick cut it to 27-24, before two Fustine free-throws with :19 left gave Gannon a 29-24 lead.
 
Pitt-Johnstown began the second half on a 12-4 run to regain the lead.  Josh Wise's jumper capped a 5-0 Mountain Cat run that tied it at 29, and three free-throws from Romano Sebastiani gave the lead back to Pitt-Johnstown at 32-31.  Wise then hit a jumper at 13:28 to put Pitt-Johnstown in front 36-33.
 
Gannon countered with a 19-4 run over the next five minutes to rebuild the lead to 52-40 on a Jonathan Harewood basket.
 
The Golden Knights still held a 12-point lead with 5:15 remaining, before the Mountain Cats battled back and cut it to two on Mulbah's layup at 2:08, but a bucket by Daryl Porter with 1:10 left, lifted Gannon to the 3-point victory.
 
Mulbah finished with a team-high 16 points, five rebounds, and four assists to pace Pitt-Johnstown.  Wise scored 10 points, and John Paul Kromka had eight points (6-6 FTs), nine rebounds, and four blocks.  The Mountain Cats also got seven points and five rebounds from Caiden Landis, six points from Sebastiani, and five points apiece from Joe Batt and Jakubick.
 
Niether team had a good night shooting.  Pitt-Johnstown finished at 38.6% (17-44) and 4-9 from 3-point range, while Gannon was held to just 31.8% (21-66) shooting.  However, the Golden Knights hit 10 3-pointers.  The Mountain Cats shot 23-28 from the free-throw line, and Gannon was 12-15.
 
Olawoye's game-high 22 points led three Gannon players who scored in double figures.  Porter had 15 points and seven rebounds, and Fustine added 10 points and nine rebounds to help the Golden Knights snap a six-game losing streak and improve to 4-10 overall and 2-6 in the PSAC West.
 
The Mountain Cats will host PSAC doubleheaders in the Sports Center with the women's team against Edinboro on Saturday afternoon and California (PA) next Wednesday.