STEUBENVILLE, OH- The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg men's basketball team fought off Franciscan University, 84-79, on Wednesday (Jan. 22) to return to their winning ways. The Bobcats (14-3, 10-2) had five players reach double figures in the battle that came down to the wire. Franciscan drops to 5-10 overall and 4-7 in AMCC play.
After the Barons scored to get within one point (80-79) with 39 seconds left. The Bobcats took the shot clock all the way down and Cam Seigfreid connected on a jumper to make it 82-79. Seigfreid followed that with a defensive rebound, his team best eighth of the game, off a missed jumper by the Barons and then was fouled, sending him to the free-throw line. The junior guard then proceeded to convert both free throws to put the game in the books for Pitt-Greensburg at 84-79. Seigfreid finished the contest with 17 points.
Matt Johnson went 3-for-3 from beyond the arc and finished the night with 20 points to lead the Bobcats. Cody Spaid and Torian Jenkins netted 15 points apiece, while JoJo France added 13. The five double digit scoring Bobcats accounted for 80 of the 84 points.
The intense AMCC matchup saw 13 lead changes and 9 ties. Twelve of the lead changes and eight of the ties came in the first half.
Pitt-Greensburg led for 11-plus minutes in the first half, while Franciscan held the advantage for just under six of the opening twenty minutes. The Bobcats got out to a 10-4 lead in the opening three minutes, thanks to France, who sank two deep balls during the stretch. Franciscan chipped away and took the lead by one-point at 14:14.
The teams traded baskets for the rest of the half and were deadlocked at 42 at the break. The Barons largest lead came at 4 points with 4:40 to play in the first half, which UPG answered with two unanswered baskets to tie the game two minutes later.
Seigfreid slammed home his first dunk of the year in the opening possession of the second half and the Bobcats did not surrender the lead after that.
France made a layup at 16:56 to give the Bobcats their largest lead of the game (nine points) for the first time. The layup by France concluded a 10-2 run by UPG over the prior two minutes. Jenkins and Nate Burt each made jumpers to return the Bobcat lead to nine, their highest of the night, at 14:35 and 13:35 respectively.
Franciscan used a 14-5 run to come back and tie the contest at 64 with just under nine minutes to go in regulation. Pitt-Greensburg responded with seven straight points, five of which by Johnson, to take a 71-64 lead with 7:10 remaining on the clock.
The Barons would not go away, however. UPG had the lead up to eight points with 4:47 left and Franciscan went on a 7-0 spurt over the following two minutes and nine seconds to trim the Bobcat advantage to just one point. The Bobcats were able to hold on down the stretch by making three of their final four shot attempts and both of their two free throw opportunities in the final seconds. Seigfreid, as mentioned above, scored the last four points for Pitt-Greensburg.
The Bobcats had their best percentage shooting night of the season as a team, as they shot 61.1% (33-54) from the field.
Pitt-Greensburg returns to their home court on Saturday (Jan. 25) for a matchup with Hilbert College. The Bobcats routed the Hawks (11-6, 7-5) by 20 points (82-62) in their first matchup this season. Tip off inside Chambers Hall is slated for 1 pm on Saturday.
