CALIFORNIA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team had its 2017-18 season come to an end Monday night in an 81-70 loss at No. 24 California University (Pa.) in the first round of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament.
 
Slippery Rock ends the year with a 12-16 overall record and a 10-12 mark in league games. The 10 league wins are the most by a Rock team in program history and its 12 overall victories represent the third most for SRU in the last 14 seasons.
 
Brooke Hinderliter led Slippery Rock Monday night with a 20-point, three-rebound, five-steal effort. Hinderliter went 7-for-10 from the field overall while also going a perfect 6-for-6 at the free throw line.
 
Fresh off a double-double in The Rock's regular season finale at Gannon, Morgan Henderson had a strong finish to her junior season with 16 points and six rebounds over 29 minutes. Like Hinderliter, Henderson was also 7-for-10 from the field to go with one 3-pointer and one foul shot.
 
Slippery Rock received great bench production from the combination of Madison Johnson and LeeAnn Gibson. Johnson went for 11 points while Gibson chipped in 10 points and grabbed five rebounds. Playing in her final collegiate game, Sierra Fordham scored nine points to round out The Rock's top performers.
 
SRU shot exceptionally well from the floor, finishing at 59.2 percent (29-for-49) from the field overall. The Rock also out-rebounded the Vulcans 36-26.
 
However, there were three areas of the game that spelled doom for the upset-minded Rock on Monday. California held a +21 (32-11) margin in free throw attempts while also making seven 3-pointers to SRU's two and forcing The Rock into 24 turnovers, which directly led to 39 points.
 
Slippery Rock played a great first half. California opened up a 12-point lead through the opening seven minutes of the first quarter, but SRU battled back with a 10-0 run that cut the Vulcans' lead down to just 21-19 at the end of the opening period. Gibson accounted for four points over the run.
 
SRU continued to stay with the nationally ranked Vulcans and eventually took its first lead of the second quarter when Fordham connected on a jumper to put The Rock up 32-31 with 2:49 left in the first half, but California ended the quarter on a 4-0 run to take a narrow 36-32 into the halftime break.
 
However, The Rock's hopes of an upset would be dashed in the third quarter as California doubled up SRU, 24-12, over the 10-minute stretch to push its lead out to 60-44. SRU shaved five points off of the Vulcans' lead in the fourth quarter, but could never get Cal.'s advantage under 10 points in the eventual 81-70 loss.
 
Shatara Parsons led California with 21 points, five rebounds and one block. Jihana Flood-Francis added 18 points as well.
 
The Vulcans will now move on to play Edinboro University 7 p.m. Wednesday in the second round of the PSAC Tournament.
 
 
 
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