Jay Rose scored 21 points to pace five Mountain Cats who scored in double figures, but D'Youville held off a late Pitt-Johnstown charge to earn a narrow 90-86 non-conference win, Monday evening in Buffalo, NY. The Mountain Cats slipped to 2-3.
Rose scored a team-high 21 points on 7-12 shooting, including 4-7 behind the 3-point line and 3-3 from the free-throw line, while
Sean Dillon went 10-12 from the line and finished with 16 points and five assists to lead the Mountain Cats.
Ryan Smith had 12 points and six boards,
Adam Bilinsky tallied 11 points and five rebounds, and
Vinnie Cugini had 11 points. Pitt-Johnstown also got eight points and seven boards from
Nick Watts and five points from
Will Kromka.
D'Youville got off to a quick start and used a Justin Moore layup to climb out to a 9-3 lead, but the Mountain Cats scored the next seven to go on top 10-9 on
Baden Forup's layup four minutes in.
Neither team gained much momentum until Watts connected on a pair of free-throws at 6:05 to give Pitt-Johnstown a 34-29 advantage.
Ryan Smith then hit two from the line with just over a minute
remaining to increase it to six, to
help the Mountain Cats take a 45-39 lead into the halftime break.
Rose's three-pointer on Pitt-Johnstown's opening possession of the second half pushed it out to nine and the Mountain Cats maintained the lead until Moore's jumper capped an 8-0 Saints run that put D'Youville back in front, 68-64, with 10:50 to play.
Watts' free-throws at 7:16 knotted it at 69, but the Saints outscored Pitt-Johnstown 9-2 over the next three minutes to build a 78-71 advantage on Jaylin Simmons' bucket.
The Mountain Cats didn't go away and got a 3-pointer from Rose with :37 to play to narrow it to three and a putback from
Adam Bilinsky with :02 remaining to make it 88-86, but Pitt-Johnstown came up just short.
Pitt-Johnstown ended the night shooting 46.4% from the floor, 6-18 from behind the arc, and an impressive 28-31 from the free-throw line. The Saints were limited to 43.7% (31-71) and just 8-30 from 3-point range. D'Youville was 20-21 from the line.
Moore's game-highs of 33 points and nine rebounds, and Jordan Turner's 17 points led the way for the Saints, now 2-3 on the year.
Pitt-Johnstown will begin PSAC Crossover-play as part of home doubleheaders with the women's team against Lock Haven on Friday and Mansfield on Saturday. The women will tip off Friday's doubleheader at 3 p.m. in the Sports Center and Saturday's games at 1 p.m.
