The Pitt-Johnstown women's basketball team, seeded sixth in the Western Division, got off to a good start at second-seeded Gannon, but the Golden Knights used a strong second half to defeat the Mountain Cats, 70-44, in Wednesday's Quarterfinals of the PSAC Women's Basketball Tournament.  Olivia Fasick's 11 points led the young Pitt-Johnstown squad, which ended the season at 13-17 after an impressive win at Seton Hill in the opening round send the Mountain Cats to PSAC Quarterfinals.
 
Along with Fasick, Ashley Norling had seven points and four rebounds, and Kylah Franklin collected seven points and three rebounds.  Peyton Alazaus chipped-in six points and Cassidy Crawford added five points and three rebounds for the Mountain Cats.
 
Pitt-Johnstown came out and hit four of its first eight shots to climb out to a six-point lead on a pair of Franklin baskets and Fasick's 3-pointer six minutes into the game.  Gannon answered to tie it at 13 on Samantha Pirosko's layup, but Fasick's late 3-pointer and a Franklin free-throw gave the Mountain Cats a 17-13 advantage.
 
Crawford came off the bench and quickly got the lead back out to six on Pitt-Johnstown's first possession of the second quarter, before the Golden Knights clawed back to regain the lead, 22-21, on an Ali Benim layup at the four-minute mark.  After Gannon got it out to three, Hayden Taylor knocked down a 3-poonter for the Mountain Cats to knot it at 24, but the Golden Knights scored the final three points to take a 27-24 lead at the break.
 
The Mountain Cats narrowed it to 31-29 2:13 into the third quarter on Norling's layup, but Gannon countered with a 13-3 run over the next five minutes to go on top 44-32 on two Tori Obenrader free-throws and the Golden Knights went into the fourth quarter leading 48-34.
 
Pitt-Johnstown played it even with Gannon much of the fourth quarter but just wasn't able to put a run together and the Golden Knights went on to the victory.
 
After a hot shooting night that saw the Mountain Cats make 13 3-pointers and shoot over 60% from behind the arc in Monday's opening round win at Seton Hill, Pitt-Johnstown had a rough outing on Wednesday.  The Mountain Cats hit five three pointers, but shot just 28.3% from the floor.  The Golden Knights picked it up in the second half and shot 13-24 to end the night at 48.0%.  Pitt-Johnstown limited Gannon to just 3-11 from 3-point range.  However, the Golden Knights shot 25 free-throws and made 19, while the Mountain Cats made 9-of-14 from the stripe.
 
Pirosko had game-highs of 19 points an 12 rebounds, and Emma Wright tallied 17 points and 10 rebounds to lead Gannon, now 22-6.