BUFFALO, NY- The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg men's basketball team fell for just their second time in conference play on Monday (Jan. 20) at D'Youville College, 98-82. The game was back and forth for the most part, until a late push by the Spartans (3-12, 2-8) secured their win. The Bobcats now fall to 13-3 overall and 9-2 in AMCC play.
JoJo France led the Bobcats 22 points, coming off six three pointers. Cody Spaid and Matt Johnson each tallied 14 points, while Nick Kotecki added a season-best 10 off the bench.
France made a three pointer to start the game and the Bobcats did not trail for the first five and a half minutes of the game. The game stayed close however, as 8-3 was the biggest margin for UPG in the opening minutes, which came at 18:42 on a Spaid lay in.
D'Youville sank a three pointer to take a 15-14 lead, their first of the game. The teams traded baskets for a couple minutes, then the Spartans made back to back three balls to go up seven points at the 9:55 mark in the first, the largest lead by any team to that point. Pitt-Greensburg answered with six straight points of their own over the next minute and 33 seconds to bring it back to a one-point game (25-24).
A lay-up by Nate Burt put the Bobcats back on top at 7:26 in the first half (28-27). The Bobcat advantage got up to four a minute later, but the Spartans responded and tied the game at 31-31 with 5:10 left in the opening half. The game got tied five more times in that final 5:10 of the first frame and no team led by more than three. D'Youville answered a game tying three by Nick Kotecki with a lay-up just before the halftime buzzer to make it 47-45 Spartans at the break.
The second half opened as the first ended, a back and forth battle. That was until a 13-4 run, from 9:48 to 5:49, by D'Youville gave them their first double digit lead of the game (83-73). The spurt by the Spartans came right after the Bobcats took five minutes and moved their deficit down from seven to one.
The score was tied three times early in the second half and Pitt-Greensburg led twice in the opening minutes of it. Their last lead came at 17:33 when Johnson cashed in a free throw to make it 53-52.
D'Youville stayed ahead by eight or more for the final 6:49 of the game and they obtained their largest lead of the game (16) on the final made field goal of the game, which came with 20 seconds left.
The Spartans shot 14 of 28 (50%) from three and 36 of 64 (56.3%) from the field, while UPG made 31 of their 69 attempts from the field for a 44.9% clip and shot 10 of 26 (38.5%) from behind the arc. D'Youville's other advantages on the stat sheet came on points off turnovers (24-15) and fast break points (13-2).
Pitt-Greensburg stays on the road for their next matchup, as they head to Steubenville, Ohio for their second matchup of the season with Franciscan University. The Bobcats downed the Barons 65-48 in their first matchup this year. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 pm on Wednesday (Jan. 22).
