A furious second half rally allowed Pitt-Johnstown to climb out of a 26-point hole and stun Mansfield with a 99-95 victory on Saturday afternoon at the Sports Center.

The Mountain Cats moved a game over .500 at 4-3 (2-0 PSAC) behind a 61.1% (22-of-36) shooting performance in the second half. Even more impressive, Pitt-Johnstown connected on just one 3-pointer in the game.

Ryan Smith poured in a game-high 24 points and pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. Sophomore Vinnie Cugini went 8-for-13 from the field and finished with 19 points.

Baden Forup chipped in 15 points, and Adam Bilinsky had 11 points and four rebounds. Sean Dillon provided six points and dished out a game-high 10 assists.

Forup opened the scoring with a layup 17 seconds into the game, but the first half belonged to Mansfield. The Mounties scored 30 of the next  36 points to go up 30-8 wth 13 minutes to go in the half.

The Mountain Cats methodically began to work their way back in the final minutes. Down 52-29, they scored 11 straight points to close the half capped off by a layup from Cugini to make it 52-40 heading into the locker room.

Bilinsky's 3-pointer at the 13:49 mark of the second half cut the deficit to single digits at 67-60. That clutch shot came in the midst of a 21-5 flurry as the Mountain Cats went up 71-69 on another layup from Forup with 11:49 left.

There was no slowing down the attack from that point on. Despite Mansfield making it a two-point game in the closing minutes, Pitt-Johnstown fired off a 10-2 run puncuated by two free throws from Jay Rose that pushed the lead to 90-80 with less than two minutes to go.

Smith's dunk with 11 seconds to play extended the lead to 97-91 and sealed the game.

Pitt-Johnstown will visit Puerto Rico to take on Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras on Monday at 4 p.m.