After recognizing seniors Josh Wise and Adam Kline, the Mountain Cats ran out to a 20-point halftime advantage and cruised to a 78-52 PSAC victory over Clarion, Saturday afternoon in the sports Center.  The Mountain Cats improved to 20-6 overall and 14-5 in conference-play to mark the first 20-win season since 2008-09 when the team was 24-8 and advanced to the NCAA Atlantic Region Tournament.
 
Wise, this week's PSAC West Men's Basketball Athletie of the Week, led all scorers with 16 points on 5-7 shooting.  He also had five rebounds and a game-high three steals.  Joe Batt was also 5-7 shooting and finished with 14 points, while Drew Magestro's 10 points rounded out the Pitt-Johnstown double-figure scorers.  Caiden Landis scored eight points, John Paul Kromka had six points and seven rebounds, and Matt Holsinger grabbed six rebounds off the bench.  Kline had five points, three rebounds and a pair of assists on his Senior Day.
 
Magestro's layup just over six minutes in put the Mountain Cats on top-by 11, and Batt's bucket at the 7:50 mark increased it to 30-14.
 
Pitt-Johnstown held the double digit lead the remainder of the half and pushed it out to as many as 21 on Donovian Maxfield layup at 1:36, before the Mountain Cats took a 48-28 lead into the half.
 
Pitt-Johnstown continued to pour it on in the second half.  Fred Mulbah's driving layup with 14:05 to go got the lead out to 26, and Holsinger's basket with 1:46 remaining gave the Mountain cats their largest lead of the day at 76-48.
 
The Mountain Cats, who out-rebounded the Golden Eagles 37-25 and forced 17 turnovers, shot a solid 46.4% (26-56) from the floor, including 8-18 from 3-point range.  Pitt-Johnstown was also perfect at the ling, going 18-for-18.  Clarion shot 40.4% (21-52), 6-15 from behind the arc, and 4-6 from the free-throw line.
 
Elijah Cottrill's 12 points and Kaison Branch's 11 points paced Clarion, which fell to 5-20 overall and 4-15 in the PSAC West.
 
Pitt-Johnstown travels to Mercyhurst on Wednesday, before closing out the regular season home schedule with a PSAC doubleheader with the women's team against Seton Hill on February 26.