Edinboro, Pa. – The Edinboro men's basketball team used a balanced attack with five players scoring in double figures to earn a 97-75 win over Pitt-Johnstown on Saturday in PSAC West action inside McComb Fieldhouse.
UPJ held a 21-18 after a Baden Forup jumper at the 10:29 mark of the first half.
Steve Kelly tied the game with a triple and the teams see-sawed to a 27-27 tie with 6:30 remaining in the opening half.
Daunte Wilcott and
Ryan Ladjevich scored back-to-back buckets for the Scots to push the lead to 31-27. After a Forup bucket, the Scots went on a 12-4 run taking a 43-33 lead on a
Cenker Evran layup with 2:13 on the clock. The Edinboro advantage grew to 12, 47-35, on a Ladjevich layup with 56 seconds on the clock before Forup scored at the other end to trim the halftime lead to 47-37.
Ryan Smith scored the first bucket of the second half to pull UPJ within single digits, 47-39. The Scots answered with an 11-4 run capped by a
Michael Dunn layup at the 16:32 mark stretching the lead to 58-43.
Smith hit a trey to cut the lead to 58-46, but the Scots pulled away with a 15-5 run keyed by 3-pointers from
Evan Berger, Ladjevich and Kelly to make the lead 73-51 with 10:41 to play. The Edinboro lead never slipped below 20 the rest of the way.
The Scots shot 17-of-35 from beyond the arc with Kelly hitting 6-of-10 and Ladjevich going 4-of-4 from distance.
Kelly paced the offense with 23 points to go with nine assists and two boards. Kelly also surpassed 1,000 career points scoring 328 of his 1,004 points at Edinboro this season. Ladjevich added 20 points, six rebounds and five assists. Evran tallied another double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds. Wilcott scored 11 points and reach 1,000 points for his career with 464 coming two seasons at Edinboro. Dunn was the fifth scorer in double figures notching 11 points.
Smith led the Mountain Cat offense with 21 points to go with seven rebounds. Forup and Jay Rose each tallied 12 points.
The Scots are back in action next Saturday with a trip to IUP. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m.
