Bloomsburg Falls in Men's Basketball Season Opener

John Owens

BLOOMSBURG--Paul Byer and Dwight Hines each scored 25 points to lead Pitt-Johnstown (UPJ) to an 83-75 win over Bloomsburg University in men's college basketball action Wednesday night. The game was the season opener for the Huskies.

The Mountain Cats started fast in the game opening a 12-2 lead in the first three and a half minutes of play with Byer hitting two three-pointers and Carlos Cogsdell getting five points.

Then later with the score 16-10 in favor of UPJ, the Huskies went on a 12-1 run to grab their first lead of the game at 18-17 with 10:30 to play in the half. After a Matt Fisher (Cogan Station/Jersey Shore) jumper made the score 29-27 in favor of the Huskies, the Mountain Cats used a 7-0 run, including five points from Hines to take a 34-29 lead with 3:14 left in the half.

The Huskies, though, closed out the half with 9-4 rally its own to go into halftime tied at 38-all, the fifth tie of the half.

Cogsdell and Hines started the second half with back-to-back jumpers with Hines hitting a three to put the visitors in front 43-38. However, two layups from Fisher and two jumpers from John Owens (Philadelphia/Abington Friends) tied the score at 46-all with 16:13 to go in the game. It would be the last tie of the game.

The Mountain Cats slowly opened up a 58-50 lead with 11:53 to play after a jumper by Byer. After the Huskies closed back to within four at 58-54, UPJ went on a 14-6 run to push its advantage to 72-60 with 4:12 to go in the game. But, the Huskies battled back and cut the deficit to 76-70 with 37 seconds left on a layup by freshman Andrew Jerry. The Mountain Cats, though, hit five of six free throws in the final 30 seconds to win by eight.

Along with Byer and Hines, Pitt-Johnstown, 2-0, got 14 points from Steve Scorpion and 11 from Cogsdell.

Bloomsburg, 0-1, was led by John Owens with 19 points, while Bob Nenstiel (Nuremburg/Weatherly) scored a career-high 14 points. Andrew Jerry (Philadelphia/Olney) turned in a fine all-around game with 13 points, five rebounds and four assists.

The Huskies, 0-1, will take part in the Bowie State tournament this weekend in Bowie, Maryland.