The PSAC West third-seeded Pitt-Johnstown men's basketball team lead wire-to-wire and cruised into the PSAC Tournament Quarterfinals with a dominating, 78-62, opening round victory over sixth-seeded Gannon, Monday night in the Sports Center.
John Paul Kromka's game-highs of 20 points, eight rebounds, and five blocks led four Mountain Cat double figure scorers and sent Pitt-Johnstown, now 21-8, to its third straight Quarterfinals appearance to face West No. 2-seeded Mercyhurst, Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Erie.
Kromka finished with 20 points on 10-15 shooting, while
Jared Jakubick scored 17 points on 5-9 shooting and 5-5 from the line. The Mountain Cats also got 14 points, five rebounds, and a career-high-tying 12 assists from
Fred Mulbah and 11 points, including 3-4 from 3-point range, from
Drew Magestro.
Joe Batt scored nine points, grabbed seven rebounds, and dished out four assists, and
Ryan Smith pulled down six rebounds.
Pitt-Johnstown set the tone early. The Mountain Cats shot 59.13% in the first half, held Gannon to just 1-17 shooting to start the game and raced out to a 28-10 first half lead. A pair of Kromka dunks quickly got the lead into double figures, and Magestro's 3-pointer at 9:30 made it 19-4. Jakubick's 3-pointer at 7:12 capped a string of four straight Pitt-Johnstown 3-pointers and pushed the lead to 18.
The Golden Knights cut it to 32-19 with 3:05 left, but the Mountain Cats scored the final six points, including Jakubick's jumper, that gave Pitt-Johnstown a commanding 38-19 halftime lead.
Jakubick's 3-pointer to open the second half got it out to 38-19, before Gannon came back with an 11-2 run to narrow it to 43-30 on a Demetrius Mims' basket at 16:30.
The Golden Knights got as close as 10 at the 14:20 mark, before the Mountain Cats regained control and pulled away with a 14-2 run of its own over the next four minutes, capped by Mulbah's layup.
Pitt-Johnstown maintained at least a 16-point advantage the rest of the way.
The Mountain Cats, who out rebounded the Golden Knights 38-32 and held a 40-12 advantage in points in the paint, ended the night shooting 53.4% (31-58) from the floor, 7-18 from behind the 3-point line, and 9-11 from the line. Gannon, which shot just 21.4% in the first half, was limited to 32.8% (20-61) shooting, including just 7-26 from 3-point range.
Mims had 18 points and seven rebounds, Lance-Amir Paul had 14 points, and Braden Olsen tallied 12 points for Gannon, whose season came to an end at 14-13.
