GREENSBURG, PA- The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg men's basketball team defeated Medaille College, 86-77, on Saturday afternoon inside Chambers Hall. The Bobcats improve to 11-0 at home, while bringing their overall and conference record to 18-4 and 14-3, respectively. The Mavericks fall to 10-12 overall and 8-9 in AMCC play.
JoJo France paced the Bobcats with 21 points on four triples, his second straight and fifth twenty-point game of the season. Cody Spaid made nine of his 10 shots to score 20 points. Matt Johnson netted double digits for the 14th straight game, with 19.
Pitt-Greensburg recorded an assist on 27 of their 32 made baskets and were led by Cam Seigfreid, who dished out a season best seven to lead the Blue and Gold.
Seigfreid opened the game with a three pointer that put him over 1,000 points in his Pitt-Greensburg career. The junior guard becomes the 10th player in program history to hit the mark. The teams went back and forth until Medaille took the lead after a 9-9 tie four minutes into the game. The Mavericks were in front for a seven-plus minute stretch from 15:35 to 8:28. During that stretch, the Bobcats faced as much as a six-point deficit.
With the score at 20-14 in favor of the Mavericks with 9:45 to play, Isaiah Ziese made a layup that sparked a 13-3 run by UPG to regain the lead. Tommy Arbuckle's old fashioned three-point play tied the game and put the Bobcats ahead after the free throw, 22-21. Johnson had six of the 13 points on the run, including a three ball to cap it off at the 6:37 mark.
Pitt-Greensburg led the rest of the game and got their lead to as high as 13, which came at 1:52 after a 16-5 Bobcat run. The Bobcats were 5-for-6 from the field and 3-for-4 from beyond the arc during the run. Medaille made the next five points, then JoJo France sank a three pointer for the last bucket of the first half to make it 48-37 at the break.
The first five points of the second half were made by the Bobcats to extend their lead to the largest of the afternoon, at 16 points (53-37). A 10-2 run by Medaille trimmed their deficit to just four points (62-58) with 11:36 to play. Pitt-Greensburg punched back with seven unanswered points to return to a double-digit advantage (69-58).
UPG lead by nine or more for all but 22 seconds during the final 10 minutes of the game.
Spaid pulled down nine rebounds to lead the Bobcats on the boards.
UPG had 23 points off of 15 turnovers by the Mavericks.
The Bobcats held Medaille to 45% shooting, the fifth straight game that they've held the opponent to under 50%. Jonathan Smith had a career high 31 points for the Mavericks.
Pitt-Greensburg will hit the road for the final time this regular season on Wednesday (Feb. 12), when they go to Cresson, Pa for a 6 pm faceoff with Mount Aloysius. The Bobcats downed the Mounties, 81-65, back on January 15 in Greensburg.
