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ERIE, Pa. – Slippery Rock University's quest for the 2014 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference men's basketball championship ended Tuesday night when hosting Gannon University recorded a 73-69, double-overtime victory over The Rock in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference quarterfinal action at the Hammermill Center.

The loss gave The Rock a 20-10 win-loss record and denied the Green and White their third conference semifinal berth in the last four seasons.

Gannon, which beat The Rock for the third time in as many meetings this season, improved its season record to 19-8. The Golden Knights, winners of eight consecutive games, also earned the right to play West Chester University in semifinal action Saturday in East Stroudsburg.

Senior center Maurice Lewis-Briggs scored a game-high 31 points and grabbed eight rebounds for The Rock. Sophomore forward Cornelius Brown (6 rebounds) and senior guard Josh Martin each scored 11 points for SRU, while senior forward Tabari Perry added nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

Adam Blazek led Gannon with 25 points, A'Darius Porter added 14 points, Raphell Thomas-Edwards chipped in 12 points and Rogerio Livramento contributed 10 points and a team-high seven rebounds for the Golden Knights.

The Rock finished the game with a 37.5% (21 of 56) efficiency on its field goal attempts, hit four of 19 (21%) shots from 3-point range and sank 23 of 25 (66%) free throws.

Gannon made 44% (25 of 57) of its field goal attempts, hit three of 12 shots from long range and canned 20 of 30 free throws.

SRU won the rebounding battle by a whopping 48-29 margin in a duel of the top two backboard-crashing units in the conference.

The Rock lost the turnover battle, though, committing 16 miscues compared to only nine for Gannon, but SRU had a 15-8 advantage in points scored off turnovers.

Gannon had a 32-24 advantage in scoring "in the paint," a 15-8 edge in points off turnovers and a 16-3 advantage in bench scoring.

The Rock had a chance to win the game in the final seconds of both regulation time and the first overtime period but missed on two shot attempts down the stretch in standard time and had their final shot in the first OT rattle around the rim and fall off.

After 14 minutes of action, The Rock held a 10-point, 24-14, lead but then only scored two points in the final six minutes of the opening half. Gannon, meanwhile, scored 14 points in that six-minute stretch to take a 28-26 edge into the intermission.

The Rock outscored the hosts by a 19-9 margin in the first eight minutes of the final half to hold a 45-37 lead with 9:45 left to play, again only to see Gannon roar back with a 14-5 run to take a 51-50 lead with two minutes left in regulation time.

Neither team took control of the final two minutes of regulation as they were knotted at 51-51 at the end of regulation time and deadlocked at 58-58 after the first overtime period.

Notes: Tuesday's game marked the 19th consecutive game in which Lewis-Briggs scored 10 or more points and the 26th time in 30 games this winter … The Rock earned a PSAC playoff berth for the fourth consecutive season, a feat that had not been accomplished since 1991 by the Green and White … This winter marked only the seventh time in Rock men's basketball history a Green and White squad won 20 or more games … Tuesday's loss was The Rock's third in four overtime games this winter and gave SRU a 6-5 record in extra-time games under sixth-year head coach Kevin Reynolds.