The Pitt-Johnstown men's basketball team defeated Slippery Rock University, 98-84 Saturday afternoon on Senior Day at the Pitt-Johnstown Sports Center. The Mountain Cats improved to 15-12 overall and 10-10 in the PSAC West. Slippery Rock University fell to 19-8 overall and 16-4 in conference.
 
Prior to the game, Head Coach Bob Rukavina and the Pitt-Johnstown men's basketball program recognized Olando King Jr., Romano Sebastiani and Noah Yartin.
 
Offensively, the Mountain Cats saw nine players score and five of them hit double figures. Josh Wise led the way with 30-points on 10-for-14 shooting and 4-for-5 from behind the arc. Fred Mulbah and John Paul Kromka added 15-points for the Mountain Cats. Caiden Landis added 12-points and Marcin Wiszomirski finished the day with 11-points.
 
After a Kromka 3-pointer, Josh Wise hit a 3-pointer to give the Mountain Cats the early 6-2 lead, with 18:32 left in the first half. Slippery Rock tied it at 12 with 15:29 left thanks to a Nolen Gerald layup. Slippery Rock took their first lead of the game and made it 16-14 on a John Warren II layup with 14:14 left in the half.
 
With 7:30 left in the first half, Warren II knocked down a 3-pointer to give Slippery Rock a 27-22 lead. Wise scored eight straight points for the Mountain Cats to tie it up at 30. Pitt-Johnstown's Adam Kline pushed the Mountain Cats lead to 37-32 when he knocked down a 3-pointer assisted by Jared Jakubick.
 
Mulbah found a cutting Kromka for the final basket of the first half to make it 43-36.
 
With 18:00 left in the second half, a pair of Wise free throws gave the Mountain Cats a 49-39 lead. Wise then pushed the Mountain Cats lead to 13 when Landis found him for three.
 
With 15:27 left the Mountain Cats pushed their lead to 14 when thanks to a Landis layup, assisted by Wise. The Mountain Cats lead ballooned to 18-points on a Sebastiani layup.
 
Slippery Rock fought back and went on a 13-4 run capped off by Jared Armstrong free throws with 4:28 left in the game, cut into the Mountain Cats lead and make it 83-71.
 
Pitt-Johnstown answered after Mulbah split a pair of free-throws, Wise knocked down a jumper to make it 86-71, with 3:57 left.
 
Pitt-Johnstown as a team shot 56.3 % (36-64) from the field, 41.7 % (5-12) from behind the arc and 84 % (21-25) from the charity stripe.
 
The Mountain Cats close out the regular with a PSAC doubleheader with the women's team against Mercyhurst Wednesday night in the Sports Center, before opening the PSAC Tournament on March 4.