Joe Batt poured in a season-high 19 points and paired it with a team-high nine rebounds to help the Pitt-Johnstown men's basketball team narrowly edge Seton Hill 78-75 on Saturday afternoon in the Sports Center. The Mountain Cats improved to 18-6 (14-4 PSAC).
Batt, a senior guard from Greenville, PA, is now just five points shy of becoming the 34th player in Pitt-Johnstown men's basketball history to score 1,000 points.
Senior guard Jared Jakubick drained six 3-pointers and finished with 18 points to go along with four boards, two assists and two steals after playing all 40 minutes. Drew Magestro racked up 17 points, including five 3-pointers, and snatched five boards.
In what was a tightly contested battle throughout, Pitt-Johnstown hit a few timely shots down the stretch and just made one more defensive play than the Griffins late. Seton Hill grabbed a 75-73 lead late on a layup with 1:50 remaining. However, on the Cats' next possession, Jakubick buried a clutch three to go back up by one with 1:35 left.
Following a pair of necessary defensive stops with under a minute to go, Ryan Smith got a steal with seven seconds left and went the length of the court for a fastbreak layup with just two seconds to go. Seton Hill threw up a last gasp heave from halfcourt but it was off-target as the Cats won for the seventh time in their last eight tries.
The Cats opened the game on a 10-0 run that was capped off with a 3-pointer from Jakubick that forced the Griffins into a timeout. After the Griffins started to put it together offensively, Pitt-Johnstown found itself up by eight on Batt's three-pointer with 4:37 to go in the first half, but Seton Hill worked back and hit a three at the buzzer to shrink the Cats' advantage to 42-41 at the break.
Pitt-Johnstown shot 49.2% from the field as a team and limited Seton Hill to a 44.3% clip.
Led by Batt and Jakubick, the Cats shot 50% (13 of 26) from deep, which included an 8 of 13 performance from 3-point range in the first half.
Samuel Tabe notched a double-double with a game-high 25 points and 12 rebounds for the Griffins, who fell to 15-10 (10-9 PSAC). Pitt-Johnstown and Seton Hill have both clinched a berth in the PSAC Tournament.
The Cats find themselves in a tie for second place in the PSAC Western Division with Mercyhyurst. They visit the Lakers for a critical matchup on Wednesday. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
