Drew Magestro scored a game-high 21 points to lead a second half Pitt-Johnstown surge, but third-ranked Indiana (PA) held off the Mountain Cats, 72-64, in Saturday's PSAC Western Division regular season finale in Indiana.
 
The Mountain Cats, ranked sixth in the NCAA Atlantic Region Poll and battling for an NCAA tournament berth, closed out the 2021-22 regular at 20-8 overall and 16-6 in the PSAC.  Pitt-Johnstown clinched the No. 3 seed in the PSAC West and will host sixth-seeded Gannon in Monday's first round of the PSAC Men's Basketball Tournament.  Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Sports Center.
 
Magestro, who grabbed five rebounds and dished out three assists, connected on five 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 21 points to pace four Mountain Cat double figure scorers.  Fred Mulbah had 14 points and a team-high seven assists, while John Paul Kromka tallied 12 points and five rebounds.  Joe Batt's 10 points and four rebounds rounded out the Pitt-Johnstown double figure scorers.
 
A Caiden Landis layup, followed by a Drew Magestro 3-pointer cut an early Mountain Cat deficit to 16-13 just over eight minutes into the game.
 
IUP got hot and hit three 3-pointers, including one from Bryce Radford with eight minutes remaining in the first half, that extended the to 13, before Magestro's third 3-pointer of the opening 20 minutes got the Pitt-Johnstown deficit back down to 10 at 29-19.
 
The Crimson Hawks maintained the lead and took a 40-21 advantage into the halftime break.
 
Pitt-Johnstown came out in the second half and cut the gap to 15 on two occasions, before a pair of Fred Mulbah baskets made it 53-41 at the 9:41 mark.
 
The Mountain Cats kept clawing and used a John Paul Kromka basket at the seven-minute mark to make it a 10-point game, and Kromka's layup with 2:36 to play cut it to 63-55.
 
However, Dave Morris hit a 3-pointer on the Crimson Hawks' next possession that pushed the lead back to 11 and IUP held of the Mountain Cats' charge.
 
After a slow start, the Mountain Cats shot 50% in the second half to finish the day at 41.2% (28-68).  Pitt-Johnstown limited IUP to 41.3% (26-63), but IUP had 18 free-throw chances and made 12 of them, while the Mountain Cats were just 1-for-1.
 
Ethan Porterfield's 18 points and 11 rebounds and Armoni Foster's 15 points and seven rebounds led the way for the Crimson Hawks, now 26-2 overall and 20-2 in the PSAC West.
 
Pitt-Johnstown will host a 2022 PSAC Men's Basketball Tournament game on Monday or Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Sports Center.