Josh Wise scored 23 points and pulled down six rebounds, but Seton Hill clawed back from a 12-point second half deficit for a 71-68 PSAC victory over the Mountain Cats, Thursday night in Greensburg.  Pitt-Johnstown, which already clinched a PSAC Tournament berth, slipped to 14-12 overall and 9-10 in conference-play.
 
The Mountain Cats, who shot 55% in the first half, ran out to a nine-point lead eight minutes into the game.  Six early points from PSAC West Freshman of the Week John Paul Kromka and a Wise layup at 12:24 gave Pitt-Johnstown an 18-7 lead.
 
Seton Kill cut it to six on a Trevor Blondin 3-pointer and Tommy Sekunda' bucket, but the Mountain Cats got it out to 22-12 midway through the opening half on Olando King Jr.'s short jumper.
 
The Griffins got back in it with an 11-5 run, capped by Milenko Predic's free-throw, over the next five minutes, but Pitt-Johnstown finished the half strong.  The Mountain Cats outscored Seton Hill 10-3 over the final 4:57 to build an 11-point halftime advantage.  Baskets by Fred Mulbah and King, Jr. increased the lead to nine, before Wise's layup with under a minute left made it 37-26 at the break.
 
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Nathan Davis cut the Griffins' deficit to five to begin the second half, but a pair of Mulbah free-throws by Mulbah on one from Kromka closed an 8-0 Mountain cat run to rebuild the lead to 46-23 at 15:15.
 
Seton Hill continued to hang around and took advantage of a 15-6 run to take the lead.  Davis and Kealan Coats each hit 3-pointers to cut it to 56-54 with 7:58 to play, and Sukunda's layup on the Griffins' next possession put them on top, 57-56.
 
Davis' sixth 3-pointer of the night made it 63-60 at the 6-minute mark.  Romano Sebastiani's basket at 2:06 put the Mountain Cats back in front 66-63, but Coats' Davis' 3-pointer's gave the lead back to Seton Hill, 69-66 with just over a minute remaining.
 
Kromka's basket got it down to one, but Wise's jumper with time running out would not fall and Seton Hill sealed the 3-point victory with two free-throws.
 
Along with Wise's 23 points, Pitt-Johnstown also got 15 points and a game-high 14 rebounds from Kromka and 14 points and five assists from Mulbah.  King added eight rebounds, and Sebastiani grabbed five rebounds for the Mountain Cats.
 
With his 23 points, Wise climbed two spots into 23^rd-place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Scoring List with 1,079 career points.  Wise is now 31 points shy of Paul Byer (2002-05) for 22^nd-place on the list.
 
After shooting 55% in the first half, Pitt-Johnstown finished the game at 48.3% (28-58), but 0-5 from 3-point range.  Seton Hill shot 41.8% (23-55) from the floor and used 12-pointers.  Pitt-Johnstown was 12-20 from the free-throw line, and the Griffins were 13-18.
 
Davis finished with a game-high 27 points, including 7-12 from behind the 3-point arc, and eight rebounds, and Coats hit four 3-pointers and had 17 points to lead Seton Hill.  Blondin chipped-in 11 points to help the Griffins improve to 9-16 overall and 7-12 in the PSAC.
 
Pitt-Johnstown will celebrate Senior Day against Slippery Rock on Saturday afternoon, then wrap-up the regular season with a doubleheader with the women's team on Wednesday against Mercyhurst.  The Mountain Cats will then begin the post-season with the First Round of the PSAC Tournament on March 4.