ALFRED, NY- The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg completed their first half of AMCC play on Saturday (Jan. 18) with a, 79-68, win over Alfred State College. The Bobcats (13-2, 9-1) led from wire to wire to make it nine straight wins, while Alfred State falls to 4-11 and 2-8 in conference with the loss. 

JoJo France led Pitt-Greensburg with 18 points on 50% shooting from the field. France also swiped a career best four steals from the Pioneers. Matt Johnson had a game-high with nine points at halftime and finished with 17. Brady Kingston tied his season high with 11 points on 4-of-6 from the floor.

Sixteen seconds into the game, Cody Spaid scored a layup for the first points of the game, which gave the Bobcats the lead, which they would never relinquish. Spaid finished the game with seven rebounds and four assists, both stats were team highs.  

The score got to 9-8 Pitt-Greensburg at 12:54 in the first half. The Bobcats went on to score the next eight points to go up nine points (17-8) at 10:23 on a three pointer by Johnson.  

France sank a three pointer of his own at 8:34 in the first to put UPG up by double digits (22-12) for the first time. Thirteen points (26-13) was the largest lead of the first twenty minutes by Pitt-Greensburg, whichcame with 6:32 remaining on another France three. 

Alfred State cut their deficit down to seven points (34-27) at the break. 

UPG scored the first four points of the second half to get their lead back up to double figures. Johnson stole the ball and converted that into two Bobcat points at 10:08 to cap off a 6-0 run and give Pitt-Greensburg their largest lead of the game (68-42). 

Pitt-Greensburg stayed up by double digits for the final 5:29, except for two dips down to 9 points at 2:51 and 24 seconds both dips were answered with points by the Bobcats on their next possession. 

Points in the paint and off turnovers proved to be the difference. The Bobcats owned a +16-point (36-20) advantage inside the paint, and a +7 (19-12) edge in points off turnovers. 

Nate Burt tallied two blocks to post his sixth multi block game of the season. 

Ryan Gentile scored 26 points for the Pioneers to lead all players, his seventh time scoring above twenty this season. 

After the first half of conference play the Bobcats sit in a tie for first place with La Roche College, who also has a 9-1 AMCC record. 

Pitt-Greensburg will stay in New York and travel from Alfred to Buffalo for their next game on Monday (Jan. 20) at D'Youvile. The Bobcats downed the Spartans 91-73 in their first matchup back on December 7th. D'Youville (3-12, 2-8) come into the contest riding a two-game win streak. Tip off for Monday's game is set for 1 pm.