Would a basketball coach rather have mostly seniors on the court to start a game as opposed to mainly freshmen?
Just ask Pitt-Johnstwon coach Bob Rukavina.
UPJ’s four fifth-year seniors were no match for former Mountain Cats assistant and current Bloomsburg head coach John Sanow, who started three freshmen Saturday night at the Sports Center.
The Mountain Cats netted 60 points from their quartet en route to a 95-73 victory over the Huskies to open the season perfect at 5-0.
“When you have four fifth-year seniors in the starting lineup, it makes things a lot easier,” said Rukavina, who is in his 20th season guiding UPJ. “These guys have been through it. They’re all very good leaders, and that’s so important. We’re really playing good basketball right now.”
One of UPJ’s eight losses last season happened at Bloomsburg, 57-51, on Dec. 5, leaving the Mountain Cats at 3-3. UPJ went on to win 20 of its next 25 games.
Mountain Cats senior guard Quinton Davis led all scorers Saturday with 23 points and had a game-high eight assists.
Fellow upperclassmen Marcus Tullis scored 20, including a dunk off an inbound set-play, Matt Ionadi had 13 points and point guard William Sharpe added four points and seven assists.
“In practice that’s all we work on is taking care of the ball,” said Ionadi, who was introduced prior to the game as the Penn Hills Italian Stallion. “The past couple of years, even when we were younger, just always take care of the ball and lead the country in assists, working as a team. We’re all such close friends it’s easy for us.”
UPJ freshman Patrick Grubbs scored 14 and collected nine boards.
The Mountain Cats, who are ranked No. 20 in this week’s NABC Division II national poll, only trailed once, by two points with 19:01 left in the first half before going on a 15-0 run over the next three minutes.
“We been actually working, just recently, the past few days on trying to push the ball up more, and we really did a good job of doing that,” Rukavina said. “And trying to get some easy baskets, which we did.”
UPJ’s run-and-gun offense surged to its first 25-point advantage, 45-20, on a Travis King basket with 5:33 left in the half.
“Pitt-Johnstown’s very good,” said Sanow, who also was an assistant with the St. Francis men. “They just play so well together and execute on both ends of the floor. They’re one of the best passing teams in all of Division II.”
The Mountain Cats stretched their advantage to 34 points on a Davis layup with 10:13 left in the game, and subbed liberally after that.
Bloomsburg (2-3), which is a member of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, was led by junior guard Ruben Britt’s 21 points.
Freshmen Larry Webster had 17 points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and fellow underclassman Ronnie Benson added 11 points.
“We’re trying to build our program with young players and it’s going to take time,” said Sanow.
The Mountain Cats will get their biggest test of the season at Shippensburg University on Monday to begin a stretch of five straight road games.
“We just looking to play hard, and just keep doing what we’ve been doing, practice hard,” Ionadi said. “It starts in practice. Practice hard and play hard.”
College
Mountain Cats defend the home court
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