Liv West poured in a career-high 21 points to pace four Mountain Cats who scored in double figures, but the hosts connected on six of seven from the line down the stretch to hold off Pitt-Johnstown, 75-71 in the 2025-26 season-opener at the Frostburg State Jim Crawley Conference Challenge in Frostburg Md.
 
West finished with 21 points on 9-14 shooting and a team-high five rebounds, while Riley Childress had 18 points on 7-11 shooting to lead the Mountain Cats.  Pitt-Johnstown also got 13 points and four assists from M'laya Ainsworth and nine points from Lydia Miller.
 
Ainsworth connected for three early tie it, but Frostburg State used a 9-0 run, capped by Laeklyn Flinn's 3-pointer to put the Bearcats on top 12-3, before two more of Ainsworth's seven first quarter points as time expired cut the Mountain Cat deficit to 20-13.
 
Pitt-Johnstown came out in the second quarter on a 14-2 run and shot 69% from the floor to erase the deficit and take a four-point lead into the halftime break.  A pair of West free-throws knotted it at 22, and Millers' 3-pointer at the 5:52 mark put the Mountain Cats up 27-22.  Pitt-Johnstown pushed it out to eight on Millers' steal and layup with 2:22 left in the half, but Flinn's late bucket narrowed it to 37-33.
 
After Frostburg quickly evened it at 37 to begin the third quarter, Ainsworth hit another 3-point to extend the Mountain Cat lead back out to seven.  The Bearcats answered with a 15-7 spurt over the next five minutes to briefly regain the lead by one on Flinn's free-throws, until a Childress 3-pointer helped Pitt-Johnstown send it to the fourth quarter tied at 54.
 
Back-to-back baskets from West and Childress got the Pitt-Johnstown lead back out to five just over a minute into the fourth quarter, before seven straight Frostburg State points gave the lead back to the Bearcats.  It remained close the rest of the way.  However, trailing by one with 1:59 to play, Jenna Muha hit a pair of free-throws that gave Frostburg State the lead for good.  The Bearcats went on to make their free-throws the line in the final minute to seal the tight victory.
 
Both teams shot an even 50% from the field and made six 3-pointers, but the Bearcats knocked down 23 of their 31 free-throws, while the Mountain Cats only attempted nine and made seven.  Despite being outrebounded, Pitt-Johnstown held a 38-32 advantage in points in the paint and scored 25 points off of 20 Bearcat turnovers.
 
Julie Spinelli netted 21 points and grabbed five boards, and Muha had 16 points and a game-high eight rebounds to lead five Frostburg State double-figure scorers.
 
Pitt-Johnstown will wrap up the Frostburg Classic against West Virginia Wesleyan on Saturday at 1 p.m., then visit Wheeling (WV) for a non-conference game on Wednesday.  The Mountain Cats will open their home schedule with a non-conference game against West Virginia State on  Nov. 23 at 1 p.m. in the Sports Center.