Pitt-Johnstown’s Miller hits milestone

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November 11, 2012

Pitt-Johnstown’s Miller hits milestone

Mike Kovak mkovak@tribdem.com The Tribune-Democrat Sun Nov 11, 2012, 11:29 PM EST

JOHNSTOWN — Pitt-Johnstown senior Jordan Miller admits that scoring his 1,000th point as a member of the Mountain Cats men’s basketball team was on his mind.

Considering Miller finished his junior season with 999 career points, it’s likely that the Central Cambria High School graduate and Vinco native thought about how he’d score point 1,000.

Would it be a free throw or a three-pointer? Maybe a short jumper on a fast break?

It’s unlikely Miller, a key member of Pitt-Johnstown’s experienced and highly skilled backcourt, imagined exactly how his 1,000th point actually came.

Only 1:42 into Pitt-Johnstown’s season-opening 70-57 victory at Bloomsburg on Saturday afternoon, Miller scored on a reverse layup, which made him the 24th men’s player in UPJ history to hit the 1,000-point mark.

“When it first happened, everyone was like, ‘Let’s get back on defense,’ ” Miller said Sunday. “When the first stoppage came, my teammates came up to me and congratulated me. Then, we went back out to take care of business.”

Miller was one of two area college players to hit the milestone on Saturday.

Former Bishop McCort standout Sarah Pastorek finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds, both game-highs, as Indiana University of Pennsylvania defeated Fairmont State, 50-47, to improve to 2-0.

Pastorek, a 5-foot-11 senior forward, entered the game with 998 career points.

Miller, a 6-0 guard, finished his game with 10 points, four rebounds and three assists.

“It’s a good milestone. I’ve worked hard in my career,” Miller said. “I have to give thanks to my parents (Mark and Elizabeth Miller) because they supported me through my career and to my teammates. It’s a real good feeling when you’ve worked so hard to have something nice like that happen.”

To top things off, Pitt-Johnstown enters Tuesday’s home opener against Penn State-Altoona with a 1-0 record. In the win over Bloomsburg, fellow guard Nick Novak scored 27 points. He ranks eighth on the Mountain Cats career scoring list with 1,436 points.

“We work well with each other,” said Miller, who scored a career-high 32 points in a 2009 game against Salem International. The two-time all-state player scored a Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference record 2,105 points while at Central Cambria.

“It’s not too often you see two guards with 1,000 points like this,” he added. “He helps me out there, and I help him. You can never accomplish things like this without your teammates.”

Pitt-Johnstown was picked to finish eighth in a preseason poll of West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference coaches.

The Mountain Cats believe their final year in the conference before a move to the PSAC will be better than that,

“We feel good as a team. We think we have a good shot,” Miller said. “For the seniors, it’s our last chance to cement a legacy. We’re confident that we can.”

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