The Rock Lock Up Home Playoff Game

Rock men lock up home playoff game with 73-69 win at Seton Hill


GREENSBURG, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men’s basketball team assured itself of a home Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference postseason tournament home game with a 73-69 win Saturday afternoon over hosting Western Division rival Seton Hill University.

The win improved The Rock’s season record to 19-8 overall and 10-5 in PSAC-West action and guaranteed the Green and White no worse than a fourth-place finish in the division standings.

If The Rock, who host nationally-ranked (Pa.) in the regular-season finale Wednesday (8 p.m. tipoff) in Morrow Field House, remain in the No. 4 spot, they will host Seton Hill in a first-round postseason game March 1.

Should The Rock finish third in the division standings, they would host either Pitt-Johnstown or California (Pa.) in first-round action. The latter two teams are currently tied for sixth place and the final PSAC-West postseason berth.

With the loss Saturday, Seton Hill dropped to 15-10 overall and 7-8 in division action. The Griffins are assured of a fifth-place finish in the division standings.

Maurice Lewis-Briggs

Senior point guard Josh Martin scored a team-high 23 points, one point shy of his season-high mark, to lead The Rock’s winning effort Saturday. Senior center Maurice Lewis-Briggs added 17 points and a team-high seven rebounds, redshirt junior guard Antonio Butler contributed 15 points and senior swingman Tabari Perry added eight points and five rebounds.

Tabari Perry

Butler scored on a layup with 0:37 left to play to put The Rock up by a 70-68 score and came back on the next possession to hit a pair of free throws to ultimately ice the win.

Malachi Leonard scored a game-high 25 points and snared five rebounds to lead Seton Hill’s attack, while Max Kenyi added 12 points and six rebounds.

Leonard entered the game as the PSAC’s top rebounder with a 9.1 per game average and was tied with Lewis-Briggs for seventh place among conference scorers with a 17.0 points per game average.

The Rock made 24 of 51 (48%) shots from the field and four of eight attempts from 3-point range.

The winning margin came from the foul line, where SRU sank 21 of 27 (78%) shots.

Seton Hill made 29 of 56 (52%) of its field goal attempts with a 4-for-14 (29%) efficiency from long range. The Griffins made seven of nine (78%) free throws.

SRU enjoyed a 33-23 rebounding advantage, but was on the high end of a 14-12 turnover comparison.

The Rock trailed by three points (32-29) at halftime and did not take their lead until the 18:45 mark in the second half when a pair of free throws by Lewis-Briggs put the Green and White on top by a 35-34 score.

Three lead changes later, The Rock scored eight unanswered points to take a 49-43 lead with 13:15 left to play.

The Rock had a nine-point, 57-48, lead with 11 minutes left, only to see Seton Hill go on a 14-4 run to take a short-lived 62-61 lead at the 4:20 mark.

The lead changed hands four times in the next two-plus minutes before a Lewis-Briggs free throw knotted the count at 68-68 with 1:41 remaining.

Butler’s layup with 0:37 left gave The Rock a 70-68 lead and opened a 5-1 Rock run down the stretch to ice the win.

Notes: The Rock are one win away from reaching the 20-win mark for the second consecutive season, the fourth time in six campaigns under current head coach Kevin Reynolds and only the seventh in school history … Wednesday’s game will be White Out Night and also men’s basketball Senior Night at Morrow Field House. The Rock’s four seniors (Lewis-Briggs, Martin, Perry and guard Sa’Quan Davis) will be honored prior to the opening tipoff. Special White Out Night t-shirts are on sale at the SGA Bookstore in the Robert M. Smith Student Center for $5. White Out Night is co-sponsored by the Bookstore and The Grove apartment complex … The Rock’s first-round PSAC tournament game will tipoff at 7 p.m. March 1, according to Paul Lueken, SRU’s director of athletics.

Bob McComas
Sports Information Director
Slippery Rock University
1 Morrow Way - Room 201 Old Main
Slippery Rock, Pa. 16057
Office: 724.738.2777
Fax: 724.738.4761
Cell: 724.421.5658
Email: robert.mccomas@sru.edu
www.sru.edu

A ROCK SOLID Education

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

SRU Beats Pitt Johnstown

SRU men's basketball team records 66-56 win at Pitt-Johnstown

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Senior forward Tabari Perry recorded a 19-point, 13-rebound “double-double” Saturday afternoon to lead Slippery Rock University to a 66-56 win over hosting Pitt-Johnstown in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division men’s basketball action at the Sports Center.

The win improved SRU’s season records to 7-2 overall and 3-1 in division action while Pitt-Johnstown saw its season records fall to 5-3, 2-2 with the loss.

SRU has a quick turnaround for its next game as the Green and White host Penn State New Kensington in a 7 p.m. game Monday in Morrow Field House before taking a seven-day break for fall-semester final exams.

Perry, who recorded his second double-double of the season, was one of three Rock players to finish Saturday’s game with a double-digit scoring total. Senior guard Sa’Quan Davis added 12 points and five assists to the winning cause, while junior forward Kelvin Dixon contributed 11 points and five rebounds. Senior guard Josh Martin also handed out five assists for SRU.

Bill Luther took game-high scoring honors with 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Pitt-Johnstown, while Jake LaRavie added 11 points and seven rebounds.

Behind the lead of Perry and Dixon, The Rock held a 41-38 rebounding advantage to offset a 10-8 turnover comparison that saw SRU on the high side.

The Rock finished with game with a respectable 42% (23 of 55) shooting percentage on their field-goal attempts with an 8-for-20 (40%) showing from 3-point range. The Rock made 12  of 20 (60%) free throws.

Pitt-Johnstown made 30% (16 of 54) of its field-goal tries, hit seven of 22 (31%) long-range shots and sank 17 of 21 (81%) free throws.

The teams traded scoring spurts throughout the opening half of action, which ended with the teams deadlocked at 29-29. The stalemate at the intermission was the second in the opening 20 minutes, during which the lead changed hands on six occasions.

Neither team shot the ball particularly well in the first half as The Rock made only 38% (11 of 29) of their shots and Pitt-Johnstown hit an even colder 32% (8 of 25).

The Rock made five of 10 shots from 3-point range, but were an icy 2-of-7 (29%) from the foul line, compared to Pitt-Johnstown’s 36% (4 of 11) effort from 3-point range and red-hot 9-of-10 showing from the charity stripe.

Both teams grabbed 20 rebounds and took good care of the basketball, as evidenced by six turnovers for SRU and four for UP-J.

The Rock opened the second half with a 10-2 run to take a 39-31 lead with 16:30 left to play and held an 11-point, 50-39, lead with 12 minutes remaining.

Three and a half minutes later, The Rock lead was only four points, 50-46, as SRU’s shooting touch went ice cold. Just as quickly, though, The Rock responded with seven unanswered points to put the margin back to 11 points, 57-46.

Luther, who scored 12 of the Mountain Cats’ 29 first-half points, kept the hosts in the game early in the second half as he scored their first eight final-half points.

The Rock never led by less than seven points in the final eight and a half minutes of action and held their largest lead of the game, a 12-point, 62-50, advantage with 2:44 remaining.

Bob McComas
Sports Information Director
Slippery Rock University
1 Morrow Way - Room 201 Old Main
Slippery Rock, Pa. 16057
Office: 724.738.2777
Fax: 724.738.4761
Cell: 724.421.5658
Email: robert.mccomas@sru.edu
www.sru.edu

A ROCK SOLID Education

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

SRU Upsets Winston-Salem State in First NCAA Win

Rock men upset #16 Winston-Salem State, 69-67, to record first-ever NCAA tournament opening-round tournament win

Devin Taylor had game-high totals of 27 points and 15 rebounds and Tabari Perry scored the game-winning points on a layup with 2.6 seconds left Saturday to lift SRU (23-8) to victory

WEST LIBERTY,   W. Va. – Slippery Rock University recorded its first-ever NCAA Division II men’s basketball tournament opening-round victory Saturday afternoon with a 69-67 win over 16th-ranked Winston-Salem State University in the Atlantic Regional hosted by West Liberty University.

With the win over the second-seeded Rams (21-7), the sixth-seeded Rock improved their season record to 23-8 and matched the school record shared by three previous teams for single-season wins.

Most importantly, the Green and White earned a berth in Sunday’s 5 p.m. second-round game, in which they will meet Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division rival Indiana U. of Pa. for the fourth time this season.

Third-seeded IUP (25-5), winners of two of the three previous meetings with SRU this winter and the No. 10 team in the latest National Association of Basketball Coaches’ Division II national ranking, advanced to Sunday’s action with a 76-68 win over conference rival East Stroudsburg, the No. 6 seed, in Saturday’s first opening-round game.

Junior swingman Tabari Perry drove the left  baseline and scored off an assist from junior guard Sa’Quan Davis with 2.6 seconds left to play to account for the winning points in The Rock’s win Saturday.

Perry then put the exclamation point on the win when he blocked a last-second jump shot by Winston-Salem State standout Justin Glover and grabbed the loose ball as the final horn sounded.

Devin Taylor

Senior forward Devin Taylor recorded game-high totals of 27 points and 15 rebounds to lead The Rock attack, while both Perry and senior forward Gerald Brooks finished the game with 12 points and seven rebounds.

Joe Thompson muscled his way to team-high totals of 19 points and 11 rebounds for Winston-Salem State, while Glover had 15 points and six rebounds and Michel-Ofik Nzege chipped in 13 points and six rebounds.

The Rock shot 39% (23 of 59) from the field, made three of 14 (11%) shots from 3-point range and sank 20 of 27 (74%) free throws in the game.

SRU also won the rebounding battle by a 46-40 margin, but were on the high side of an 11-8 turnover comparison.

Winston-Salem State made 35% (24 of 68) of its action shots with a 6-of-15 showing from 3-point range

and hit 13 of 21 (62%) free throws.

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh