Fred Mulbah scored 19 points and
Caiden Landis added 18 points to lead the Pitt-Johnstown men's basketball team to a 101-81 non-conference victory over Carlow University in Wednesday's 2019-20 home-opener in the Sports Center. The Mountain Cats are now 2-1.
Pitt-Johnstown used a 12-3 run to open-up 24-12 lead midway through the opening half, before
Drew Magestro's conventional 3-point play and a Mulbah layup at 4:53 increased it to 37-18.
The Mountain Cats maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the game and took a 43-27 lead into the halftime break.
After baskets from Landis and Magestro early in the second half built the lead to 20, Carlow used the 3-pointer to claw back to within 11. Three of Marcus McMillen's eight 3-pointers cut the deficit to 67-55 at the 11-minute mark, and McMillen's lay-up at 9:34 made it 71-60.
However, Pitt-Johnstown regained control pushed it back out to 20 on two
Josh Wise free-throws, then took its largest lead of the night at 99-75 with 1:51 remaining on a
Jared Jakubick basket in the paint.
Mulbah finished with 19 points, including 9-11 from the free-throw line, and Landis collected 18 points on 6-7 shooting and 6-8 from the charity stripe to lead four Mountain Cats who scored in double figures.
John Paul Kromka scored 16 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, and
Joe Batt hit 5-6 from the line and scored 12 points. Pitt-Johnstown also got nine points and seven rebounds from Wise, nine points and six rebounds from Magestro, and six points and six rebounds from
Marcin Wiszomirski.
Pitt-Johnstown shot an impressive 56.9% (33-58) from the field and 4-14 from 3-point range. The Mountain Cats were also 31-38 from the free-throw line. Carlow was held to just 39.7% (27-68) shooting, but hit 18-40 of its 3-pointers. The Celtics were 9-13 from the charity stripe.
McMillen shot 8-11 from behind the 3-point line and finished with a game-high 33 points and Tre Harvey chipped-in 11 points for Carlow, which slipped to 0-3.
The Mountain Cats continue a four-game home stand with a non-conference game against Ohio Dominican on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the Sports Center, before opening conference play with PSAC Crossover games against East Stroudsburg on November 23 and Kutztown on November 24.
