Feb. 21, 2007

Final Stats

Slippery Rock, Pa. - The Rock gave defending Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference champion California U. of Pa. all it could handle Wednesday night, but could not record the victory.

California (18-7 overall, 7-4 PSAC-West) scored 11 of the final 15 points in the game en route to a 70-67 victory in PSAC-Western Division action in Morrow Field House.

In the process, the Vulcans snuffed out any remaining hopes The Rock had for securing a second successive berth in the conference playoffs.

As it turned out, though, not even a Rock win would have kept alive the Green and White's postseason hopes as Edinboro defeated Clarion, 78-66, to lock up the fourth and final PSAC-West berth in the conference playoffs.

Edinboro will join California, Indiana and Shippensburg as the West's representatives in next week's single-elimination competition.

The Rock (9-16, 3-8 PSAC-W) will now look to end a three-game losing skid and close out its 2006-07 season on a winning note when it travels to Clarion for a 1 p.m. division game Sunday.

Wednesday's game

Chere' Marshall and Jessica Schake each scored 13 points to lead The Rock scoring attack Wednesday, while Amanda Nero added 12 points and Nijha McNeely nine points and a team-best six rebounds.

The Rock led throughout the first half of action and had a 36-29 advantage at the intermission.

The hosts remained in the lead for the first 13-plus minutes of the second half before California took its first lead, 56-54, with 6:15 left to play.

The Vulcans extended their lead to five points, 59-54, before SRU ran off nine unanswered points to take a 63-59 lead with four minutes left.

California regained the lead, 65-64, with 2:15 left before McNeely sank a free throw and Marshall canned a pair of charity tosses to put The Rock on top, 67-65, with 1:45 left.

The Vulcans parlayed Rock miscues and a 5-of-6 effort at the foul line on their own part to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Final statistics showed SRU shooting 37.3% (19 of 51) from the field, a frigid 25% (3 of 12) from three-point range and 86.7% (26 of 30) from the foul line.

California hit 40.7% (22 of 54) from the field, 42.3% (8 of 19) from beyond the arc and 64.3% (18 of 28) from the charity stripe.

The Vulcans had a 41-32 advantage in rebounds, led by a game-high 11 by Butler High School graduate Kim Nowakowski.

Nowakowski also scored 17 points to join teammates Bre' Dillon (27 points) and Brooque Williams (10) as double-figure scorers for the guests.

Notes: Wednesday's game marked the third time in the last four meetings with California that The Rock came oh-so-close to knocking off the PSAC-West's premier program. SRU dropped a 60-58 decision in Hamer Hall on the CU campus in the teams' first meeting (Jan. 29) this season. California had to work overtime to record a 57-54 win over SRU in the teams' second meeting a year ago (Feb. 6) ... California has won four of the last six PSAC titles and played in the title games the other two seasons ... This year's absence from the playoffs is the fourth for The Rock in Laurel Heilman's seven seasons as head coach at her alma mater. Heilman was an All-PSAC academic and athletic performer at SRU and served as the team captain for The Rock's only PSAC championship team in 1985-86.