Johnstown, Pa. – The Edinboro men's basketball team held off a last surge from host Pitt-Johnstown to score a 73-71 PSAC West victory Saturday afternoon.
 
The Scots held a 54-46 lead after an Evan Berger dunk with 11:14 to play. Baden Forup and Vinnie Cugini each made a layup on either side of a Daraki Bradford free throw to trim the lead to 55-50. Berger pushed the lead back out to 57-50 with a fastbreak layup at the 9:32 mark.
 
UPJ scored the next five points to pull within 57-55 on a Forup layup with 8:27 on the clock. Berger scored the next four points for Edinboro extending the lead to 61-55 with 6:30 remaining. The Mountain Cast answered with a layup before a bucket from Wilson-Daniel Charlot and Mekhi Reynold free throw put the Scots up 64-57 at the 5:38 mark.
 
The Mountain Cats cut the lead to 69-67 on a basket by Forup with 2:41 to play. Berger scored a layup and Reynolds split a pair of free throws to push the lead to 72-67 with 57 seconds left. Forup scored back-to-back layups for UPJ to trim the lead to 72-71 with 23 second to play. Berger went 1-of-2 at the line to put the Scots up 73-71 and Adam Bilinsky's trey at the buzzer was no good giving the Scots the victory.
 
Edinboro came out of the gate fast scoring the first seven points of the game after a Rowan Carmichael layup at the 17:00 mark. Cedric Rault got UPJ on the board with a free throw before Bryce Baez hit a layup to extend the Scot lead to 9-1 with 16:44 on the clock.
 
UPJ pushed back with six straight points capped by a pair of Cugini free throws to make it 9-7 with 15:17 remaining in the opening half. The Scots responded with a 10-4 spurt of their own building a 19-11 advantage on a Baez layup with 11:17 remaining in the first.
 
Will Kromka cut the lead to 22-19 with a dunk that was part of an 8-3 run midway through the opening frame. A Berger triple and a Carmichael and-one extended the Edinboro lead to 28-19 at the 7:35 mark. The Mountain Cats answered with a 3-pointer from Forup to make it 28-22 and the Scots closed the first half with a 10-5 spurt to take a 38-27 lead into the break.
 
Berger paced Edinboro with 18 points to go with nine rebounds. Bradford finished with 14 points and three blocks. Carmichael added 13 points and five helpers while Baez tallied nine points and six boards.

Forup led the Mountain Cats with 23 points and 15 rebounds. Rault added 13 points and seven helpers.
 
The Scots return to action on Wednesday when they host Clarion at 7:30 p.m. inside McComb Fieldhouse.