Josh Wise matched his career-high with 31-points to help Pitt-Johnstown power past Mercyhurst for a 71-58 PSAC victory, Wednesday night in the Sport Center. Pitt-Johnstown finished the regular season at 16-12 with a 11-10 conference record.
The Mountain Cats will be the No. 4 seed in the PSAC Men's Basketball Conference Tournament. Pitt-Johnstown will host a playoff game against the No. 5 seed which will be determined by Saturday's slate of conference action.
Offensively, Pitt-Johnstown was led by Wise's game-high 31-points and eight, followed by
John Paul Kromka's 16 points, five rebounds, three blocks, and four steals.
Caiden Landis scored nine points, and
Fred Mulbah added eight points and a game-high nine assists for the Mountain Cats.
Wise currently stands in 22
nd-place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Scoring List with 1,140 career points. He is now five points shy of Dwight Hines (2002-07) for 21
st-place and seven points away from Don Elzer (1973-77) for 20
th-place on the scoring list.
Pitt-Johnstown opened up an early 11-6 lead thanks to layup from Mulbah, Wise and Landis. The Mountain Cats extended their lead and made it 20-11 thanks to a Wise layup.
The Mountain Cats kept up the hot shooting and made it 25-13 when Kromka found an open Mulbah for three.
Pitt-Johnstown pushed their lead to 20 points with 2:13 left in the first half on a Landis layup. Mercyhurst ended the half on a 7-0 run to make it 37-24, capped off by a Nelson Maxwell 3-pointer with 21 seconds left in the half.
One minute into the second half, Mercyhurst cut the lead down to eight points, when MiyKah McIntosh knocked down a 3-pointer, to make it 37-29.
With 13:33 left in the game, Mercyhurst made it a one-possession game when Kordell Holness-Lightbody knocked down a 3-pointer assisted by Zach McIntire.
Mercyhurst grabbed the lead with 8:57 left in the game when Maxwell knocked down a 3-pointer to make it 50-48. The Mountain Cats responded and went on a 12-3 run to make it 60-53 with 4:09 left in the game.
Pitt-Johnstown pushed the lead back to ten points, with 2:45 left, thanks to jumpers from Wise and Kromka After an Edvaldo Ferreira layup, Wise knocked down a 3-pointer to make it 67-56 with 1:37 left.
The Pitt-Johnstown Mountain Cats will return to action March 4 when they host the first round of the PSAC Men's Basketball Tournament.