Seton Hill hosted Pitt Johnstown on Thursday evening in a make up contest from Wednesday as they looked to clinch a PSAC West playoff spot with a victory over the Mountain Cats. The Griffins hit twelve three pointers in the contest as they pulled away for a 74-54 victory over UPJ. The Griffins are now 16-10 overall and 10-9 in PSAC play. UPJ drops to 12-14 overall and 8-11 in PSAC play.
With the win, the Griffins clinched one of the six playoff spots from the West. Currently the Griffins are in fourth place, two games ahead of Slippery Rock and UPJ and two and a half in front of Gannon. SHU has two games remaining on the regular season, hosting Cal (PA) next Wednesday and hitting the road to IUP on March 2nd. SHU can clinch fourth place and a home game in the postseason with a win in either game or with help from SRU, UPJ or Gannon losing.
Courtney Cecere hit a three to open the scoring for the Griffins and that would be a sign to come as the Griffins hit 24 field goals in the contest, twelve of them threes. The first quarter was tightly played with five ties. The largest lead was four points by UPJ with 1:50 to play in the quarter. Two free throws from
Cheyenne Trest and a basket from Trest along with a layin from
Tiana Stewart to close out the quarter gave SHU a 21-19 lead.
After the Mountain Cats tied the game at 21, Cecere and Marecic hit back to back threes to push the lead to 27-21 with 7:17 to play in the half. UPJ cut the lead back to three but Cecere and Marecic again hit back to back threes and Marecic hit a free throw to extend the SHU lead to 37-25 with three minutes to play. SHU took a 37-28 lead into the halftime break.
UPJ scored the first bucket of the third quarter at the 7:43 mark but over the next 4:22 SHU would outscore the Cats 14-0 to take control of the game and lead 51-30. Cecere, Stewart and Marecic all hit threes during the run. The Griffins took a 55-36 lead into the fourth quarter.
Over the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, UPJ was able to trim the lead to 60-48 but a quick 8-0 run from the Griffins put the game away.
The Griffins finished the contest 12-29 (41%) from three point land. SHU also forced 16 UPJ turnovers.
Marecic led four Griffins in double figures with 18 points and 9 rebounds. Cecere finished the game with 13 points and 3 steals.
Katie Nolan also reached double figures with 12 points. Trest added 10 points in the win.
SHU will be off on Saturday with a bye in the league schedule and return to action next Wednesday night when they host California (PA) in the final home contest of the regular season.
