Unselfish team play and athleticism helped Greater Johnstown pull away from North Star in the second half and go on to win the championship game at the 33rd annual Mountain Cat Tournament at the Pitt-Johnstown Sports Center.

The Trojans (3-0), who won 79-61 on Saturday, successfully defended their 2009 title. In the consolation game, Tussey Mountain outlasted Bishop McCort, 49-44.

“How we won the last two tournaments here says a lot about the kind of kids we have,” Johnstown coach Neil Cobaugh said. “We preach team and teamwork, and you saw that.

“Guys were passing the ball and looking for the open guy.

“These kids like to play as a team and how that results on the scoreboard.

“We picked up the defensive pressure and did a better job of rebounding the basketball on the defensive end. When we do that, we have guys that come out and run the fast break. The open court is their game and that’s where they succeed and play their best.”

Johnstown junior guard Mark Watson scored a team-high 22 points, dished out six assists and had six steals and was named the tournament MVP.

“It’s a great honor, I worked as hard as I could and I hope I deserve it,” Watson said. “This was a total team effort. We came out and played together.

“It takes us a while to get going, but then we turn up the defense. We need to play like that the whole game. The more that we play together the easier it is.”

Three other Trojans scored in double figures with Alkwan Williams providing 16 points and eight rebounds, Phillip Madison chipping in 14 points and Dwight Andrews, 13.

Williams and Madison were named to the all-tournament team.

“I thought Johnstown has a nice bunch of athletes,” North Star coach Jack Loya said. “You can tell they’ve played a lot of basketball together.”

North Star’s Wade Walker scored a game-high 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Jacob Fleegle, who left the game in the second half with an injury, finished with 23 points while Nash Walker had six assists. Wade Walker and Fleegle were both selected to the all-tournament team.

North Star (2-1) played without 6-foot-6 sophomore Tony Strasiser, who was not dressed for the game because of an injury.

The teams were tied at

18 after the first quarter, but the Trojans began to pull away in the second. After a tie at 32 with 2:05 left before halftime, Johnstown ended the frame with a 10-3 run. North Star could get no closer that five points the rest of the game.

The Trojans outscored the Cougars 24-11 in the third to build their lead to 20 points.

“North Star is a great team with a lot of good players and they gave us everything we wanted in the first half,” Cobaugh said. “When they got some kids banged up, we used our athletic ability to take advantage of that. We wore them down with our speed and running, running, running. But that’s what we like to do. That’s what our kids like to do and what they do best and get in that transition game. The second half, I think they got a little tired. The constant pressure and running was to our advantage.”

There were 49 fouls called in the consolation game and Tussey Mountain played most of the second half with its starting rotation in foul trouble.

Elliott Chamberlain, an all-tournament team member, finished with 17 points and five assists, and was 15 of 24 from the line for the Titans (3-1). Eric Shuke added 13 points and a team-high eight rebounds before fouling out.

For McCort, freshman Billy Hipp’s 14 points topped the team with Mason del Rosario supplying 13 points and Nemo Trexler grabbing a game-high nine rebounds.

“That’s a good summation, that we held on,” Tussey Mountain coach Dave Bailey said. “I don’t know if we scored a basket in the fourth quarter. Our whole team had four fouls so we had to hold the ball. I think we prefer to run up and down. I think we were fortunate. Bishop McCort fought back like that (Friday) so I knew they would. I was proud of the kids the way we held on with all the foul problems. We couldn’t play man-to-man defense because we had too many fouls. I was happy with the way we won. It will get us ready for the league.”

The Titans (3-1) led 14-10 after the first and 28-18 at the half. Tussey Mountain led by 13 after three quarters.

Bishop McCort (0-4) stormed back, evening the game at 41 with 3:12 left and even taking the lead 42-41 on a pair of Jerqual Wilson free throws. But the Titans outscored the Crushers (0-4) 8-2 down the stretch to preserve the win.

“Not much improvement from (Friday),” Crushers coach Pat Hollern said. “It’s attention to detail, the things we talk about at practice, we’re just not doing it very well. We can’t guard the ball and if you can’t do that, you have a tough time doing other stuff.

“We try to be positive and find something to come back with, but there’s not too much positive happening out there.”