Caiden Landis scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds, but Clarion hit five free-throws in the final 47 seconds to break a 66-all tie and help the Golden Eagles to a 71-66 PSAC victory over Pitt-Johnstown, Saturday afternoon in Clarion.  The Mountain Cats slipped to 13-10 overall and 8-8 in conference-play.
 
Landis' short jumper gave Pitt-Johnstown an early five-point lead, but Clarion came back with a 20-11 run, capped by 3-pointers from Elijah Cottrill and R.J. Laugand, to put the Golden Eagles in front 22-18 with 10:45 left in the first half.
 
The Mountain Cats scored the next 12 to regain the lead 30-22 on Olando King, Jr. And Marcin Wiszomirski layups four minutes later.
 
Two more of Landis' 14 first half points and a Fred Mulbah 3-pointer increased the lead to 11 and Pitt-Johnstown took a 41-32 lead into the halftime break.
 
Five consecutive points from John Paul Kromka's early in the second half got the Mountain Cats' lead out to 12, before baskets from Josh Wise and Wiszomirski made it 52039 at the 14:08 mark.
 
Clarion answered with a 14-4 run behind seven points from Cottrill to narrow the gap to 52-50 with 9:22 to play.
 
Mulbah's layup at 6:49 pushed Pitt-Johnstown's lead back out to seven, but the Golden Eagles clawed back to tie it at 61 on a pair of Khari Williams free-throws with 2:23 remaining.
 
Clarion then went back on top, 66-64, when Williams knocked down a 3-pointer at 1:28.
 
After Wise's free-throws tied it on Pitt-Johnstown's next possession, Clarion scored the final five points of the game to preserve the win.
 
Along with Landis, Wise had 16 points and eight rebounds, and Wiszomirski added 13 points off the bench for Pitt-Johnstown.  The Mountain Cats also got nine points, five rebounds, and five blocks from Kromka, and six points and four assists from Mulbah.
 
With his 16 points, Wise moved into 29^th-place on the Mountain Cat All-Time Scoring List with 1,026 career points.
 
Pitt-Johnstown shot a solid 46.7% (28-60) from the floor, but connected on just 2-9 from 3-point range.  The Mountain Cats were also 8-11 from the free-throw line.  Clarion ended the day shooting 43.3% (26-60) from the field, 5-15 from behind the 3-point line, and 14-22 from the charity stripe.
 
Cottrill had a game-high 25 points, while Brandon Williams scored 12 points, and Khari Williams chipped-in 10 points to help the Golden Eagles snap an eight game losing streak and improve to 5-15 overall and 3-13 in the PSAC.
 
Pitt-Johnstown will host a PSAC doubleheader with the women's team against nationally-ranked Indiana (PA) on Wednesday at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. in the Sports Center, before traveling to a conference game at California (PA) next Saturday.