Cassidy Crawford had a game-high 20 points, six rebounds, and five assists and
Camille Dominick posted career-bests of 14 points and 10 rebounds to lead a balanced Pitt-Johnstown offensive attack to a 67-56 PSAC Western Division win at Clarion on Wednesday. The Mountain Cats improved to 14-8 overall and 9-7 in the PSAC.
Pitt-Johnstown also got 11 points from
Kylah Franklin, nine points from
Hayden Taylor, and eight points, five boards, and six assists from
Olivia Fasick.
After Siara Conley's layup gave Clarion a 6-0 advantage to start, Pitt-Johnstown bounced back to tie it at 14 on a Dominick 3-pointer at 2:38, before a Crawford jumper with :25 to go in the opening quarter gave the Mountain Cats their first lead at 18-17.
Pitt-Johnstown kept the momentum and used two more of Crawford's 13 first half points and a basket from Dominick to extend the lead to 24-18. The Golden Eagles answered to outscore the Mountain Cats, 15-7, over the final eight minutes of the second quarter to take a narrow, 33-31, lead into halftime on a Heather Ansell 3-pointer.
Five quick points from Hayden closed a 7-1 Mountain Cat spurt to begin the second half that put Pitt-Johnstown back on top, 38-34, but Sadre'a Rougeau's basket at the seven-minute mark of the third quarter briefly gave the lead back to the Golden Eagles. However, Pitt-Johnstown regained control and used a 14-3 run to extend it into double digits. Three-pointers from Fasick and Dominick, followed by another bucket from Taylor made it 52-42 at 1:08 and the Mountain Cats were able to take a seven-point lead into the fourth quarter.
That was as close as the Golden Eagles would get. A pair of free-throws from Franklin and a layup from Crawford with six minutes to play extended it 13, and Pitt-Johnstown never looked back.
The Mountain Cats shot 55% in the second half to finish the game at 47.1% (24-51) with seven 3-pointers, while holding Clarion to just 28.8% on 19-66 shooting. The Mountain Cats hit 12 of their 19 free-throws, while the Golden Eagles were 8-14 from the line.
Autumn Taylor had 18 points, and Rougeau tallied 11 points for Clarion, now 0-22 overall and 0-16 in the PSAC.
Pitt-Johnstown returns home to celebrate Senior Day with a PSAC Western Division doubleheader with the men's team against Edinboro on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. in the Sports Center, before visiting Indiana (PA) for a conference game on Feb. 14.
