Edinboro, Pa. – The Edinboro men's basketball team dropped an 82-68 decision to visiting Pitt-Johnstown Wednesday night in PSAC West action inside McComb Fieldhouse.
 
UPJ came out of the gate fast building a 12-0 lead at the first media timeout of the first half. Evan Berger put the Scots on the board with a pair of free throws at the 15:48 mark. Vinnie Cugini extended the Mountain Cat lead to 23-8 with 12:21 to play in the opening half.
 
Edinboro pushed back with an 8-2 spurt with Berger scoring all eight points trimming the lead to 25-16 at the 10:58 mark. Nick Watts pushed the lead back to 27-16 on the next possession. Bryce Baez scored five points on a triple and a layup to pull the Scots within six, 27-21, with 9:36 on the clock.
 
Will Kromka connected on a 3-pointer at 6:47 to put UPJ up 34-23. The Scots answered with an 8-2 spurt capped by a Berger layup to close the gap to 36-31 with 2:42 remaining in the opening half. The Mountain Cats closed the opening frame with a 5-2 run to take a 41-33 lead into the break.
 
The Mountain Cats pushed the lead to 45-33 on a Baden Forup jumper at 19:11. Mekhi Reynolds and Baez each scored layups to pull the Scots within 45-37 at the 18:03 mark. UPJ answered with a 22-10 run to push the lead to 67-47 with 9:33 to play. The Scots closed the gap to 78-63 on a Baez bucket at 3:02, but that was as close as Edinboro would get before Jonathan Anderson's 3-pointer in the final seconds.
 
Berger scored 26 points with three assists and two rebounds. Baez notched a double-double with 24 points and 14 boards to go with three steals.
 
Cugini tallied 23 points and seven rebounds. Forup tallied a double-double of 20 points and 11 boards.
 
The Scots return to action on Saturday at 3 p.m. when they travel to California (Pa.) for a PSAC West matchup with the Vulcans.