Ryan Smith scored 17 of his team-high 19 points in the second half and knocked down a basket with just over three minutes remaining to give Pitt-Johnstown the lead for good and help the Mountain Cats overcome an 11-point second half deficit in a 73-66 PSAC win at Gannon, Wednesday night.  Pitt-Johnstown, ranked 10^th in the D2SIDA Atlantic Region Rankings, made it six straight wins and improved to 17-5 overall and 13-3 in conference-play.
 
Andrew Shull collected 18 points and seven rebounds, and John Paul Kromka had 16 points, eight rebound, and a game-high four blocks for the Mountain Cats.  Pitt-Johnstown also got eight points from Jared Jakubick and seven points from Joe Batt.
 
In a back-and forth first half, Berkay Yilmaz's 3-pointer eight minutes in gave Gannon a six-point lead, before Pitt-Johnstown, which shot 54% in the first 20 minutes, answered right back with 3-pointers from Jakubick and Shull to quickly knot it at 19.
 
A pair of free-throws from Kromka at the 5:18 mark gave the lead back to the Mountain Cats by one, but with the scored tied at 37, the Golden Knights were able to score the final five points, including Chris Clancy's sixth 3-pointer of the half, to go in front, 42-37 at the break.
 
Gannon came out hot in the second half and hit for of its first six shot to extend the lead to 54-43 at 13:38.
 
Pitt-Johnstown charged back to regain the lead with a 15-3 run.  Seven points from Smith and a free-throw from Kromka got the Mountain Cats back to within five, before Kromka's layup and free-throw with 8:05 to play made it a one-point game.  Following a Golden Knight's turnover, Shull knocked down a jumper that put Pitt-Johnstown on top, 58-57.
 
The lead see-sawed back and forth until Smith's 3-pointer at 3:13 put the Mountain Cats up 67-64.  Pitt-Johnstown never gave up the lead and used four straight free-throws from Shull in the final :21 to seal the victory.
 
Pitt-Johnstown shot an even 50.0% (27-54) and matched Gannon, going 9-22 from behind the 3-point line.  The Mountain Cats were also 10-12 from the line.  The Golden Knights were limited to just 41.1% (23-56) shooting and 11-14 from the line.
 
Clancy finished with a game-high 22 points on 7-11 from behind the arc to lead Gannon, now 2-19 overall and 2-15 in the PSAC.  Demetrius Mims had 18 points and a game-high 10 boards, and Yilmaz tallied 11 points.
 
The Mountain Cats visit top-ranked Indiana (PA) for a PSAC West game on Wednesday, before returning home to host a conference doubleheader with the women's team against Seton Hill, Saturday afternoon in the Sports Center.