John Paul Kromka matched his career-high with 28 points and Pitt-Johnstown extended a 12-point halftime advantage to 21 to open PSAC crossover-play with a 79-62 victory over perennial power East Stroudsburg, Saturday afternoon in the Sports Center.  The Mountain Cats raised their record to 4-1 overall and 1-0 in the PSAC West.
 
Pitt-Johnstown held the Warriors, picked to win the PSAC Eastern Division, to just 33% first half shooting and forced 11 turnovers to slowly build a 12-point halftime lead.
 
After Carlos Pepin gave East Stroudsburg a 3-point lead at 13:34, the Mountain Cats scored nine straight points, including a bucket from Kromka and a Josh Wise 3-pointer to go up 20-14.
 
Najee Kitt Walls hit a 3-pointer to get East Stroudsburg back to within one with 8:20 left in the half, but Pitt-Johnstown outscored the warriors, 13-2 the rest of the way.  Thirteen unanswered points, capped by a Fred Mulbah free-throw and Drew Magestro's 3-pointer got Pitt-Johnstown's lead out to 14, before Zion Darby hit a pair of free-throws with under a second left to cut it to 33-21 at the break.
 
Pitt-Johnstown held the momentum and used a 16-7 run over the first 6:33 of the second half to extend it to 49-28 on Kromka's free-throws.
 
The Mountain Cats never let the lead get under double digits and cruised 17-point win.
 
Kromka, this week's PSAC West Player and Defensive Player of the Week, finished with 28 points on 10-13 shooting and 8-9 from the free-throw line.  He also had game-highs of nine rebounds and five blocks.
 
Caiden Landis scored 14 points, Magestro had 12 points, Mulbah scored seven points and dished out a game-high eight assists, and Josh Wise collected seven points, six assists and three steals for the Mountain Cats.
 
After shooting 47% in the first half, Pitt-Johnstown increased it 59% in the second half to finish the game at 51.9% (27-52).  The Mountain Cats, who out-rebounded East Stroudsburg, 37-27, were also 22-26 from the free-throw line.
 
The Warriors were held to 39.0% (23-59) shooting.  East Stroudsburg was also 8-30 from behind the arc and 8-15 from the charity stripe.
 
Marc Rodriguez scored 12 points and Troy Jones scored 11 points for East Stroudsburg, which slipped to 3-2 overall and 0-1 in the PSAC East.
 
The Mountain Cats wrap-up a stretch of four straight home games with a PSAC Crossover doubleheader with the women's team against Kutztown on Sunday afternoon, before traveling to the Puerto Rico Clasico to take on Puerto-Bayamon on Wednesday, Puerto-Rio Piedras on Thursday, and University of Sacred Heart on Friday.