John Paul Kromka's 14 points and nine rebounds, and
Caiden Landis' 14 points (6-6 free-throws) and six rebounds led a group of six Mountain Cats who scored in double figures to help Pitt-Johnstown build a 25-point second half lead in an 86-66 PSAC Western Division victory at Seton Hill on Saturday. Pitt-Johnstown, which made it nine wins in its last 11 meetings with Seton Hill, improved to 16-4 overall and 10-3 in the PSAC-West.
Along with Kromka and Landis,
Fred Mulbah finished with 11 points, and
Joe Batt was 7-8 from the line and scored 11 points for the Mountain Cats. Pitt-Johnstown also got 10 points and six rebounds from
Josh Wise, and 10 points from
Donovian Maxfield off the bench.
Pitt-Johnstown connected on its first four 3-pointers to open-up a 20-point first half lead.
Three-pointers from Mulbah,
Jared Jakubick, and Maxfield put the Mountain Cats on top 24-9 at the 10-minute mark, before a Wise dunk and two more of
Mulbah's 11 first half points increased it to 33-13 with 5:14 left.
Seton Hill followed with a 12-2 run to cut the deficit to 10 on baskets from Nathan Davis and Drew Green, but Kromka's late layup gave Pitt-Johnstown a 37-35 advantage at the halftime break.
Davis' layup and free-throw on Seton Hill's first possession of the second half got the Griffins back to within nine, but Kromka's bucket closed out a 12-2 Mountain Cat spurt over the next five minutes that got the lead back out to 15 at 49-34.
Pitt-Johnstown never let the lead get under double-digits the rest of the way. Batt's free-throws at 12:01 pushed it back out to 18, and two more from Batt with 5:22 to play made it a 25-point game at 81-56.
Pitt-Johnstown shot 49.1% (28-57) from the field, 5-10 from 3-point range, and 25-31 from the line. Seton Hill was held to just 39.6% (21-53) shooting, 8-16 from behind the arc, and 16-25 from the charity stripe.
Davis' game-high 25 points, including 5-7 3-pointer, and six rebounds, and Merrek Paolo's 12 points and game-high 13 rebounds led the way for Seton Hill, which dropped to 3-13 overall and 2-11 in the PSAC West.
Pitt-Johnstown hosts a PSAC-crossover doubleheader with the women's team against Mansfield on Wednesday at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. in the Sports Center, before traveling to Gannon for a conference game on Saturday.
