Evan Greening poured in a game-high 32 points, Jaewon Mitchell added a double-double and the Pitt-Bradford men's basketball team pulled away late in the second half against Geneva Saturday to win the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament championship, 87-74.
Greening went 14-of-20 from the field and pulled down 14 rebounds en route to capturing tournament MVP honors. It was the senior forward's third straight double-double to open the season.
Pitt-Bradford trailed 39-32 late in the first half, but closed the frame by scoring the final eight points to take a one-point lead into the break. Christian Kelly-Perkins had a pair of baskets to fuel the closing run.
Greening's basket two minutes into the second half stretched the Panthers' advantage to six yet the Golden Tornadoes rallied, ripping off a 10-3 run to take a 51-50 lead. However, the lead would be short-lived.
Greening scored on five of Pitt-Bradford's next six possessions to push the Panthers ahead 60-51. After Geneva cut the lead to six with three minutes remaining, Greening connected from the field to extend the advantage to eight, and Kelly-Perkins hit back-to-back three pointers a minute later to help the Blue and Gold pull away for good.
Pitt-Bradford shot 46 percent from the field and connected on a season-high seven three-pointers. The Panthers went 16-20 from the free throw line, scored 13 points off 12 Geneva turnovers and totaled 20 second-chance points. Geneva hit 44 percent of its attempt but was 5-19 from long distance.
Mitchell finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds, Kelly-Perkins scored 14 points, and Manny Welch and Fateem Brockington each had 10 apiece.
"This was a great weekend for the team," head coach Britt Moore said. "I thought we had some glimpses of being good defensively and that has to keep up. We shot it pretty well today which is tough on the second day of a tournament.
Our assistant, David Menzies, did a great job of scouting all three teams, and we were really prepared."
Mitchell was named to the all-tournament team in addition to Greening.
Pitt-Bradford improves to 2-1 on the season and will be off until Nov. 30 when it opens AMCC play at Hilbert.
