Pitt-Johnstown used hot shooting to open-up a 16-point first half lead on its way to 79-65 PSAC Western Division victory at Seton Hill, Saturday afternoon.
Olivia Fasick's career-high 19 points paced the Mountain Cats, who snapped a 10-game losing streak to the Griffins and improved to 11-8 overall and 6-7 in the PSAC West.
Fasick finished with 16 points, six rebounds, and five assists to lead a balanced Pitt-Johnstown attack that saw three Mountain Cats score in double figures.
Alli McGrath had 16 points and six rebounds, and
Gabrielle Smith added 16 points and five rebounds for the Mountain Cats, who held a 47-29 advantage on the glass.
Maddie Shanahan had nine points and a game-high 10 rebounds,
Mia Oterson scored six points and pulled down five rebounds, and
Ashley Norling had seven rebounds.
Pitt-Johnstown came out and shot 72% in the opening quarter, including 7-of-8 to start to run out to a 15-point advantage. Five early points from McGrath and a Fasick 3-pointer at 5:29 put the Mountain Cats up eight. Two more of Fasick's 12 first quarter points increased the lead to 15, before
Maurina Nunn connected
from behind the arc to make it 33-19 entering the second quarter.
After Shanahan's jumper increased the lead to 16 early in the second quarter, Seton Hill answered with a 12-2 run over the next five minutes, capped by 3-pointers from Cheyenne Trest and Samantha Kosmacki, to cut it to 37-31. Pitt-Johnstown followed with
Kashyra Jackson's 3-pointer and a bucket from Norling to take a 46-35 lead into the break.
The Mountain Cats held the momentum to start the second half and used consecutive baskets from Smith, Oterson, and Faskick to rebuild the lead to 16 at the five-minute mark, before Fasick's free-throws pushed it out to 59-41. The Griffins got a late bucket from Katie Nolan to narrow it to 64-52.
A 7-2 spurt by Seton Hill to begin the fourth quarter cut it to 66-59 on Madelyn Fischer's 3-pointer. However, Smith's layup with 6:22 to play got the Mountain Cats'
lead back into double digits and Pitt-Johnstown coasted to the 14-point victory.
The Mountain Cats ended the day shooting 51.8% (29-56) from the floor and 6-13 from behind the 3-point line, while holding Seton Hill to just 33.8% (23-68) shooting, including 6-21 from 3-point range. The Mountain Cats were 15-20 from the charity stripe, and the Griffins were 13-19 from the line.
Trest's game-high 21 points and Nolan's 17 points led the way for Seton Hill, which dropped it fourth straight game and fell to 12-6 overall and 7-6 in the PSAC West.
Pitt-Johnstown returns home to host a PSAC Crossover doubleheader with the men's team against Mansfield on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in the Sports Center, before going to Gannon for a conference game on Saturday.
