CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Senior John White (Cleveland, Ohio/St. Peter Chanel) etched his name in the University of Charleston men’s basketball record books with his 1,000th career point as he accounted for 13 points and nine rebounds in a 97-75 upset of conference foe Pitt-Johnstown, Saturday night in Eddie King Gym.
Charleston (8-11, 6-9) shot a sizzling 51 percent (18-of-35) in the first half behind the inside-out combo of seniors Jon Liggins (Euclid, Ohio/Cuyahoga CC) and Ibrahim Marone (Trotwood, Ohio/Madison). Liggins put 12 points through the net in the first half on 6-of-8 shooting, but Marone showed his power and proved to the Mountain Cats (12-5, 9-4) why is holds the highest shooting percentage in the WVIAC as he slammed his way to 10 points in the opening stanza on 5-of-5 shooting.
The teams traded punches over the first ten minutes of a contest with UPJ holding a slight one point advantage. The entire atmosphere would change within Eddie King Gym at the 11:11 mark as White drove hard to the basket to power home his seventh point of the evening, which in turn put him over the 1,000 career point mark sending the crowd into an uproar. The spark ignited by White’s score sent the Golden Eagles on a 13-0 run over the next four minutes to hand the home team a 12-point lead, which they would hold going into the break at 44-32. The distancing run was led by an unlikely hero in freshman Kyle James (Mt. Hope, W.Va./Mt. Hope) who accounted for six points as he nailed 2-of-3 attempts from behind the arc. James was averaging just 0.2 points per game as he had booked just two points all season, which came in the season opener against Bluefield State.
If the pace and hot shooting hand for UC in the first half wasn’t enough they came out of the halftime break to shoot a blistering 66 percent from the field in the second half. The Golden Eagles pulled away by 23 points just four minutes into the second half, before settling in to protect a solid lead on their home court. Pitt-Johnstown shot 52 percent (16-of-31) in the second half which would normally be great, but on this night the upset was in the making as UC never allowed the visitors any closer than 13 points to close the game.
Sitting upon a comfortable lead head coach Mark Downey was able to cycle in two freshman who in the final two minutes kept the Charleston faithful on their feet. Austin Lewis (Eleanor, W.Va./Winfield) and Shawn Ballard (Madison, W.Va./Scott) each scored their first career point in the game they combined to help the UC average on the night by going 3-for-3.
Philip Outley (West Monroe, La./South Plains College) continued to provide a lift off the bench as he accumulated 12 points, while Brandon Ross (Chicago, Ill./Lincoln Park) went 3-for-3 from three-point land en route to putting 11 points in the books for Charleston.
Nick Novak blazed past his season average to lead all scorers on the evening for UPJ as he shot 11-for-19 for 26 points and five assists, while the Mountain Cats leading scorer Patrick Grubbs netted 19 points on the evening.
The Golden Eagles get a few days rest before travelling to Ohio Valley on Thursday, January 3 for a 7:30 pm tipoff.
