BRADFORD, Pa. – The Pitt-Bradford men's basketball team used a strong outing from both junior Eric Matheson and senior Keith Burgess to defeat a tough opponent in the Hilbert Hawks, 78-75, at the KOA Arena on Wednesday night.

Burgess was honored prior to the start of the game for becoming a member of the 1,000-point Club earlier this season. He followed that up with a 21-point performance that saw several strong finishes at the basket in traffic. He tacked on three rebounds and two assists for good measure.

Matheson worked his way to a 22-point showing, a game-high, and added four rebounds and four assists to his totals. He also registered one block and two steals.

It was Matheson's clutch free-throws in the final seconds of regulation that iced the victory for Pitt-Bradford (5-6, 2-2) and allowed the Panthers to come away with a huge conference win.

Hilbert (8-2, 4-1) entered tonight's matchup tied with Penn State Behrend atop the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference standings with a perfect record. The Hawks never seemed to get comfortable in front of a packed house at the KOA Arena and their performance on the court only proved so.

Hilbert entered the locker room at the break shooting just 33.3 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from three, all while trailing 46-35.

Pitt-Bradford carried the advantage into break shooting 48.8 percent from the floor. The Panthers were a perfect 3-for-3 from the line.

The Hawks appeared to make a run in the second period and in the final minutes ended the scoring drought that had plagued them throughout the contest. However with only seconds remaining, Matheson was fouled and went to the line with a chance to seal the victory.

He did just that by making both free-throws and the Panthers fended off a last second three-pointer from Hilbert to steal a monster win for the program.

The Panthers shot 44.9 percent from the field for the game and were 12-for-15 from the line. Hilbert finished by shooting 40 percent from the floor and were 22-for-28 from the stripe.

Moving forward, the Panthers travel to face Penn State Altoona on Saturday, Jan. 10, at 3 p.m. in Altoona, Pa. They then turn around and travel to Cresson, Pa., to face Mount Aloysius on Sunday, Jan. 11, at 3 p.m. in back-to-back AMCC contests.