GREENSBURG, PA- The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg men's basketball team improved to 10-0 on their home court Wednesday evening with a 99-79 defeat of Penn State Altoona. The Bobcats secured their sixth twenty-point victory of the season by outscoring the Lions 56-39 in the final 17:50 of the game.
JoJo France sank four of his last five three-point attempts, and finished with a team-high 21 points on a season best eight made field goals. Brady Kingston scored a career-high 19 points in the victory on 8-of-11 shooting and two deep balls.
Cam Seigfreid made his first basket of the night just over four minutes into the second half. He ended the game making six of his final seven shots to tally 17 points to his stat line. Cody Spaid earned his first double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Matt Johnson rounded out the quintet of Bobcats in double figures with 12 points.
The win completed a season sweep of the Lions (13-6, 9-6) by UPG (17-4, 13-3) for the first time since the 2015-16 season.
After a 4-4 tie three minutes into the game, Pitt-Greensburg took the lead and held it for the rest of the game.
The Bobcats scored seven-straight points over a minute and 57 seconds to gain their first double digit lead of the night (22-12) at 10:07 in the first half on a Spaid layup. With 3:20 left in the half, Isaiah Ziese extended the Bobcats lead up to 17 (39-22) the largest advantage of the opening frame. The Lions netted the final six points of the half to narrow the score to 43-36 at the break.
Penn State Altoona scored the first four points out of the locker room to make it a three-point game. UPG answered with a 13-3 scoring spurt over the following three and a half minutes to take back control of the game. Kingston battled through a foul and made a layup that erupted the crowd inside Chambers Hall, which forced a PSUA timeout, and capped off the run with 14:29 on the game clock.
Five straight points by the Bobcats put the home squad up 20 (76-56) for the first time in the game at the seven-minute mark. Pitt-Greensburg stayed out in front by 15 or more for the rest of the way and notched their largest advantage of the game, 23 points, with 2:05 to play on a Jenkins lay in.
The Bobcats dished out 23 assists on 40 made baskets. Torian Jenkins led the team with five, while Spaid, Johnson, and Kingston each had four. The rebounding margin was 42-37 in favor of UPG. Spaid's 11 led the game, Jenkins hauled in eight with five coming on the offensive end.
The Blue and Gold defense held their opponent to under 50% shooting for the fourth straight game. The Lions made 43% of its attempts from the floor.
Pitt-Greensburg will welcome Medaille College into town for a 2 pm matchup on Saturday (Feb. 8). Saturday's contest will be a part of Special Olympics Pennsylvania Hoops Saturday inside Chambers Hall. The Bobcats were victorious in their first encounter with the Mavericks, 89-70, earlier this season.
