Jan. 10, 2007

Final Stats

Slippery Rock, Pa. - The Rock began Wednesday night's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division opener vs. Lock Haven ice-cold and never really recovered en route to a 71-55 setback in Morrow Field House.

SRU missed its first 10 shots from the floor, but somehow only found itself down by an 8-4 score when the its first bucket was finally scored six and a half minutes into the game.

The Rock then battled back to tie the score at 13-13 with 11 minutes left in the first half, only to see Lock Haven go on a 21-11 run to take a 34-24 lead into halftime.

SRU trimmed the margin to four points, 37-33, with 15:45 left to play and got to within three points (51-48) with six minutes left, but could not get over the hump.

Lock Haven (7-7, 1-0) scored 19 of the last 26 points in the game to pad its final margin.

If there was a bright part to The Rock's effort it was that, once the lid came off the basket and the ball started going through the hoop, SRU had a respectable shooting effort.

The Rock finished with a 39.3% efficiency from the field, but when you take away the 0-for-10 start, the percentage improves to almost 50 percent. SRU made 22 of its final 46 shot attempts in the game.

Chere' Marshall and Nijha McNeely were the only Rock players to score in double figures as they both finished with 11 points. Dana Stewart had a team-high seven rebounds for SRU (5-8 overall, 0-1 PSAC-West), while Nikki Presto handed out a season-high five assists and Kara Spagnola had four assists.

The Rock will look to bounce back this weekend as it travels to the eastern end of the state for back-to-back PSAC "crossover" games at Bloomsburg and Mansfield on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Game time both days is set for 1 p.m.

The games from Bloomsburg and Mansfield can both be heard via the "Internet broadcasts" link on www.rockathletics.com.