Greensburg, Pa. -- The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford men's basketball season came to a close on Tuesday night, as they fell to 4th-seeded Pitt-Greensburg 86-75 in the first round of the AMCC Tournament.
The Panthers fell behind at the start, as the hosts made back-to-back threes to begin the game. Jamarion Butler opened the scoring for the Panthers with a midrange jumper, and then after the Bobcats answered with a layup, Trey Davis halved the lead with a three from the wing. Pitt-Greensburg responded with a 7-0 run to push their lead to 8. Butler and Davis repeated their efforts a minute later, but the Panthers were not able to cut further into the lead, as the hosts answered each Panther advance. Pitt-Greensburg was eventually able to extend their lead to 14 with 2 minutes left in the half. Coby Farley stepped up and made two free throws and two threes around a pair of Bobcat baskets, sending the game to the break with the Panthers trailing 43-33.
Pitt-Bradford came out of halftime firing on all cylinders, quickly halving the deficit on a Gus Napoleon layup and a three-point play from Butler. The Panthers answered two Pitt-Greensburg baskets with layups from Butler and Xavion Boone Roberson, and then moved within one possession of the hosts when Jesse Laster made a pull-up jumper to cut the lead to 3 after just over four minutes of play. Unfortunately, the Panther run came up short, and the Bobcats were able to score 5 quick points and extend their lead back to 8. Davis made another long ball to keep the lead at 5, but the Panthers could not hold down the hosts, who scored four quick points to go ahead by 9.
Over the final 10 minutes of play, the Panthers were unable to string together any scoring runs, as they could not come up with stops after baskets, or convert their own defensive spots into points. The Pitt-Greensburg lead fluctuated between 8-12 points until a LAster three with 1:03 remaining put Pitt-Bradford down 7. After the three, the Panthers were stopped on the offensive end, while the Bobcats made 7-8 from the free throw line to put the game out of reach. Davis made a late layup and Farley added a long three in the final seconds.
Jamarion Butler led the Panthers with 20 points. Trey Davis made 6-9 from the field, including 4-6 from three to finish with 18 points. He was also the Panthers' leading rebounder, with 8. Jesse Laster added 12 points and Coby Farley scored 11 off the bench.
The Panthers finish their season at 14-12, posting their first winning record since the 2014-15 season.
