Mercyhurst connected on 14 3-pointers, including nine in the first half, to build a 15-point halftime advantage, then held off Pitt-Johnstown for a 73-64 PSAC Western Division win, Wednesday night in Erie.  John Paul Kromka's game-highs of 21 points and 11 rebounds paced the Mountain Cats, ranked eighth in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region.
 
Pitt-Johnstown, now 20-7 overall and 14-6 in the PSAC West, also got 11 points off the bench from Donovian Maxfield and 10 points and six rebounds from Josh Wise, who moved into a tie for 15^th place with Mike Gresik (1981-85) for 15^th on the Mountain Cat All-time Rebounding List with 502.  Drew Magestro had nine points and four rebounds, and Caiden Landis chipped-in seven points.
 
Mercyhurst got off to a fast start with nine first half 3-pointers.  After Landis's 3-pointer cut a six-point Mountain Cat deficit to one in the early going, the Lakers hit five 3-pointers and used 12 points from MiyKah McIntosh in a 20-4 run to get the lead out to 28-11 just past the midway point of the opening half.
 
Wise and Kromka combined for nine points in a 12-4 Pitt-Johnstown run over the next six minutes that narrowed the deficit to 32-23, but Mercyhurst got a 3-pointer from Steve Cannady and a late dunk from Joel Ufele to rebuild the lead to 42-27 at the half.
 
The Mountain Cats cut it to 10 three minutes into the second half of a Magestro 3-pointer, before the Lakers hit three more 3-pointers and outscored Pitt-Johnstown 15-5 to push the lead out to 63-43 at 11:22.
 
Mercyhurst built the lead to as many as 22 at 65-43 with 10:46 to play, but Pitt-Johnstown held the Lakers scoreless for the next seven minutes and battled back to make it 68-60 on Kromka's short jumper at 2:43.
 
Another bucket by Kromka got it down to seven, but that was as close as Pitt-Johnstown could get.
 
The Mountain Cats shot 43.1% (25-58) from the field, 6-18 from behind the 3-point line, and 8-12 from the charity stripe.  Mercyhurst, which made 14 of its 26 3-point attempts, shot 45.6% (26-57) and 7-10 from the line.
 
Cannady's 17 points led four Lakers who scored in double figures.  McIntosh (15 points), Michael Bradley (12 points), and Zach McIntire (11 points) also scored in double figures for Mercyhurst, which made it six straight wins and improved to 16-7 overall and 14-5 in the PSAC West.
 
Pitt-Johnstown will close out the regular season home schedule with a PSAC doubleheader with the women's team against Seton Hill on February 26 starting at 5:30 p.m., before finishing the regular season at Top-10-ranked Indiana (PA) on February 29.