BEAVER FALLS — The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford turned back a second-half rally by Otterbein to post a 63-59 victory in the first round of the Coaches vs. Cancer Tip-Off Tournament on Friday.

With the win, the Panthers advance to Saturday’s championship game against tournament host Geneva. In Friday’s second game Geneva defeated John Jay 85-80.

The first six minutes of the Pitt-Bradford and Otterbein game it was back-and-forth with the Cardinals holding a one-point, 10-9 lead with 14:34 remaining, but from that point on UPB took control.

Jaewon Mitchell triggered a 7-0 run by the Panthers that put them up 16-10 with 12:56 left in the first half.

UPB’s Evan Greening dropped in a layup to make the spread eight points, 20-12, at the midway point of the opening stanza and the Panthers went on a 9-3 scoring streak to stretch their advantage to 14, 29-15, with 4:55 left.

Otterbein managed to whittle Pitt-Bradford’s 14-point lead (31-17) down to 11, 33-22, as the teams headed to their respective locker rooms at the break.

In the second half, Otterbein went to the long ball.

Cameron Arminio and Bryan Mackenzie both buried three-pointers to key a Cardinals spurt that cut Pitt-Bradford’s lead to four, 41-37, with 14:24 left in the game.

That was a close as Otterbein would get as a pair of Greening free throws at the 8:15 mark had the Panthers back on top by 10, 51-41.

The Cardinals had enough left to battle back one more time, making it a four-point game, 54-50, on Jake Phillis’ jump shot with 2:35 remaining.

Manny Welch answered for Pitt-Bradford, adding six straight points to the UPB side of the scoreboard and the Panthers were back up by 10, 60-50, with just 30 ticks left on the clock.

Greening led UPB (1-1) with 18 points, while Welch added 13 and Fateem Brockington was good for 10 tallies.

For Otterbein, Mackenzie was the high scorer with 18 points, while Arminio finished with 15.

PITT-BRADFORD (63)

Brockington 4-1-1-10, Welch 3-6-6-13, Harris 3-0-0-6, Greening 7-4-6-18, Niedermeyer 1-0-0-2, Kelly-Perkins 1-0-2-2, Mitchell 3-2-2-8, Dahlstrand 2-0-0-4, Totals 24-13-17-63

OTTERBEIN (59)

Phillis 2-0-0-4, Mackenzie 7-2-2-18, Nossaman 1-2-2-5, Arminio 5-1-2-15, Clark 0-2-2-2, Howard 2-0-0-6, Hughes 2-2-2-6, Koontz 1-0-0-3, Totals 20-9-10-59

Halftime: Pitt-Bradford 33-22

Three-point FGs: UPB – Brockington 1, Welch 1; Otterbein – Mackenzie 2, Nossaman 1, Arminio 4, Howard 2, Koontz 1