John Paul Kromka's 19 points led four Mountain Cat double figures scorers, and Pitt-Johnstown used a 21-point first half run to climb out to a 16-point halftime lead on its way to a convincing, 90-58, PSAC Western Division win, Saturday afternoon at Clarion.
 
Pitt-Johnstown, receiving votes in both the NABC and D2SIDA National Polls, made it 12 wins in its last 14 games and improved to 19-5 overall and 15-3 in the PSAC West.
 
Kromka's 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting, six rebounds, three assists, and two blocks led four Mountain Cat double figurers and seven who scored five of more points.  Joe Batt and Ryan Smith each netted 13 points, while Caiden Landis collected 12 points and five rebounds off the bench for Pitt-Johnstown.  Drew Magestro hit three 3-pointers and finished with nine points, Andy Zuchelli had eight points, and Jared Jakubick added five points and seven rebounds.
 
Fred Mulbah scored four points to move to within 37 points of becoming Pitt-Johnstown's 33^rd 1,000-point scorer and dished out six assists to pull to within 13 of Nick Novak's (2009-13) Mountain Cat all-time record of 545.
 
Pitt-Johnstown fell behind by a couple buckets early, before catching fire to outscore Clarion 36-15 over the final 13 minutes of the first half to build a 16-point advantage.
 
Clarion came out and hit four 3-pointers in the first seven minutes, including three from Mason Mraz, to open-up a five-point lead.
 
Pitt-Johnstown answered with nine straight points over the next three minutes to go on top, 18-14, at the 10:36 mark behind four of Kromka's 10 first half points and three of Batt 11 opening half points. 
 
The Mountain Cats stayed hot and wrapped-up the half shooting 60% from the floor, while holding the Golden Eagles to just 33%.  Landis came off the bench and scored six quick points to get the lead into double figures with 3:17 left.  Magestro followed with a 3-pointer, and Smith scored in the paint with :20 to go to close out the half and give Pitt-Johnstown a commanding, 45-29 lead.
 
The Mountain Cats continued to pour it on with seven unanswered points in the first three minutes of the second half to extend it to 52-29 on two Kromka free-throws.
 
Clarion was never closer than 21 the remainder of the way.  Pitt-Johnstown's lead ballooned 67-37 at 11:24, then to as many as 38 at 76-38 on a Zuchelli 3-pointer and Smith's layup at 9:13.
 
Pitt-Johnstown dominated in nearly every statistical category. After shooting 60% in the first half Pitt-Johnstown shot 55.6% (35-63) for the game, including 11-22 from behind the arc and a perfect 9-9 from the charity stripe.  The Mountain Cats outscored Clarion 44-16 in the paint and 40-11 in bench points.
 
Defensively, Pitt-Johnstown smothered the Golden Eagles, holding them to just 32.8% (21-64) shooting, and 7-31 from 3-point range.  Clarion was also just 9-16 from the line.
 
Gerald Jarmin scored 22 points and Mraz had 12 points for Clarion.
 
The Golden Eagle have lost four straight games and are now 9-14 overall and 5-13 in the PSAC West.
 
The Mountain Cats will host a PSAC West doubleheader with the women's team against California (PA) on Monday at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. in the Sports Center, before closing out the regular season home schedule with a conference game against Mercyhurst on Wednesday at 7 p.m.