The Pitt-Johnstown men’s basketball team won their first 2020 home game 82-81 Jan. 6 against Gannon University at the Pitt-Johnstown Sports Center. 

The Pitt-Johnstown men’s basketball team lost only two out of 14 games this season.

Kelvin Jefferson, the Gannon head men’s basketball coach, said his team lost to a tougher team. 

“Pitt-Johnstown had a good offense. We started slowly, and the players did not do well. 

“We’ll keep getting better, but I respect the tough players at Pitt-Johnstown, we’ll fight back,” Jefferson said.

Jem Spectar, Pitt-Johnstown president, said it was an amazing game.

“All the players and coaches did a very good job. I was very excited because the game was very intense,” Spectar said.

Bob Rukavina, Pitt-Johnstown men’s basketball head coach, said it was s good game for his team. 

“Both teams played really hard, and their (Gannon’s) three-point shots were very good.

According to Rukavina, Gannon got seven out of seven in the first half with three-point shots and 10 out of 14 overall.

“We were down nine points in the last seven minutes of second half. I just told them do not panic,” Rukavina said.

“I want them to win the conference and NCAA tournament this season,” Rukavina said.

Junior Marcin Wiszomirski, the only foreign player on the Pitt-Johnstown men’s basketball team, said he was happy to win the first home game in a new decade.

According to Wiszomirski, after Gannon’s player missed the last free throw (Pitt-Johnstown behind Gannon by two points at the last 15 seconds in the second half), sophomore John Kromka got the rebound. 

“He passed the ball to me, then I passed the ball to sophomore Fred Mulbah. Mulbah just passed ball to sophomore Joe Batt. Batt made the key three point shots to win this game. It happened so fast,” Wiszomirski said.

Kromka, the co-captain on the Pitt-Johnstown men’s basketball team, said he couldn’t believe it happened.

“Gannon is a competitive team, and the whole game was up and down. I think we did a good job with first half of the season, and we’ll keep working on it on the second half of the season,” Kromka said,

Mulbah, who tabbed the conference west men’s basketball co-player of the week, said this is his second time to get this honor.

“I just trust Batt, and I know he can make it (three-point). We had a good defense the whole game and got paid off on our hard work.

Batt said practice let to him making the game winning three-pointer.

 “I practiced a lot three-point shots during training and got paid off today,” Batt said.