Alli McGrath scored a game-high 25 points and Pitt-Johnstown raced out to a 19-point second quarter lead in a 63-51 PSAC victory at Clarion, Saturday afternoon.  The Mountain Cats made it two straight wins and improved to 12-11 overall and evened their record in conference-play at 8-8.
 
Pitt-Johnstown started fast and built a 16-point first quarter lead.  The Mountain Cat scored the first seven points and got a basket from McGrath at 7:24 to make it 11-2.  Clarion cut it to 11-6 on Kadijah Dickson's bucket a minute later, but Pitt-Johnstown outscored the Golden Eagles 16-5 over the final 6:44 to build a 27-11 lead on Maddie Shanahan's jumper and a McGrath layup.
 
McGrath's layup and free-throws from Tori Moreland and Alexis Hartwick extended Pitt-Johnstown's run to 21-7 to start the second quarter and built the lead 32-13.  Clarion responded with a 16-6 run over the next six minutes to narrow it to 38-29 on Taylor Moltz's 3-pointer, but three more of McGrath's 16 first half points on Pitt-Johnstown's next possession got the lead back out to 12 at 41-29 at the break.
 
Gabrielle Smith's put-back and another 3-pointer from McGrath got the Mountain Cats lead back out to 17 four minutes into the third quarter, but a pair of free-throws from Dickson and one from Moltz cut Clarion's deficit to 52-40.
 
The Golden Eagles got as close as 10 on Moltz's jumper with 6:17 to play, but that was as close at Pitt-Johnstown would let it get.
 
McGrath's 25 points and six rebounds led three Pitt-Johnstown players who scored in double figures.  Smith finished with 13 points (7-8 FTs) and tied Clarion's Yasmin Lewis for game-high with 11 rebounds, and Moreland scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds.  The Mountain Cats also got seven points from Maurina Nunn.
 
With her 13 points against the Golden Eagles, Gabrielle Smith has 969 career points.  Smith needs 31 points to become Pitt-Johnstown's 38^th 1,000-point scorer.
 
Pitt-Johnstown ended the afternoon shooting 40.4% (23-57) from the floor and 5-12 from 3-point range, while holding the Golden eagles to just 32.8% (19-58), including just 2-15 from behind the arc.  The Mountain Cats were 12-17 from the free-throw line, and Clarion shot 11-14 from the charity stripe.
 
Dickson's 16 points and six rebounds and Emily Hegedus' 11 points led the way for Clarion, which dropped to 8-15 overall and 2-14 in the PSAC.
 
Pitt-Johnstown will host a PSAC doubleheader with the men's team against nationally-ranked Indiana (PA) on Wednesday starting at 5:30 p.m. in the Sports Center, before traveling to a conference game at California (PA) next Saturday.