STATS
WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. -- Point Park University men's basketball coach Bob Rager became the all-time wins leader at four-year schools in the City of Pittsburgh with Tuesday's 95-71 home win over Villa Maria (N.Y.) College at CCAC-South Gym.
Rager, in his 27th year as head coach at his alma, now has 368 wins, and he broke the record previously held by Pitt's Dr. H.C. "Doc" Carlson, who won 367 games from 1923-53. Next on the list is Duquesne's Charles "Chick" Davies with 314 followed by current Pitt coach Jamie Dixon at 308 and Rager's predecessor at Point Park, Jerry Conboy, with 305.
Point Park (4-2) took control over Villa Maria (3-4) with a 30-8 run in the first half. The run started when Point Park sputtered out a 20-13 deficit at the 10-minute mark. But over the next seven minutes, the Pioneers turned things in their favor and never trailed again.
Point Park's Kelvin Goodwin had 16 of his game-high 22 points by halftime, when the Pioneers were ahead, 45-35. The Pioneers ended up with five players scoring in double figures, which included 18 points from Jerah'me Williams and a near-triple double of 11 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists from Yandell Denis.
In the second half, Villa Maria briefly got the lead under 10 points with a 3-pointer from Donte Campbell to make the score 55-47 with 13:20 left. But the Pioneers quickly had the lead back up to double digits and soon pushed it to 20 points at 77-57 with 5:00 left.
When Villa Maria had cut the score to eight points, Fousseini Konate answered with a 3-pointer for Point Park. He then converted an old-fashioned 3-point play two possessions later to swing things back Point Park's way. He finished with 13 points.
T.J. Lanier added 10 points in 16 minutes of action. Lasana Konate added seven points, seven rebounds and four blocks.
The Pioneers were once again up over 90 points, and in their six games thus far, they have scored 104, 118, 90, 116, 91 and 95 points. They entered Tuesday ranking fifth in NAIA Division II at 103.8 ppg.
Villa Maria shot 39 percent from the field and 10 for 24 (41 percent) from the foul line. The Vikings had made 6 of 13 3-pointers the first half but cooled off to 1 for 7 after halftime.
Point Park continues its busy week on Wednesday at WVU Tech with game time 8 p.m. The Pioneers return home on the week for two more KIAC games on Nov. 20 versus Asbury (Ky.) (7:30 p.m.) and Nov. 21 versus Brescia (Ky.) (12 p.m.).
Live Video and stats will be provided by host WVU Tech for Wednesday games. The Point Park Sports Network presented by Stretch Internet will return for Nov. 20-21 versus Asbury and Brescia. Subscribe to Watch Live at portal.stretchinternet.com/ppu.
Follow the Pioneers on Twitter @PointParkSports hashtag #PPUHOOPs #PPUMBB and on Facebook.com/PointParkAthletics
