Feb. 25, 2007

Final Stats

Clarion, Pa. - A last-second, old-fashioned, three-point play deprived The Rock of victory and gave hosting Clarion University a 76-74 win in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division finale.

The loss gave SRU a four-game losing streak to close out the 2006-07 season and gave The Rock a final record of 9-17 overall, 3-9 in the division. The loss also dropped SRU into last place in the seven-team PSAC-West.

Sunday's game was the final chapter in a story of "What Might Have Been" for the Green and White.

Sunday's loss marked the fourth time this winter and second time in as many games SRU lost a division game by three or less points. SRU lost a total of seven games by six or less points this winter and another loss came in overtime.

Clarion can relate to those woes. The Golden Eagles finished its 2006-07 season with the same overall record as SRU but a 4-8 PSAC-West that was good for sixth place.

Amanda Nero paced The Rock attack with 22 points and seven assists, while Chere' Marshall added 15 points and Nikki Presto 10. Jessica Schake grabbed a team-high five rebounds for SRU.

The final statistics do not reflect a battle of the bottom two teams in the division.

The Rock shot a red-hot 54.7% (29 of 53) from the field in Sunday's game and made 50% (7 of 14) of its three-point shots, but shot an icy 52.9% (9 of 17) from the foul line.

Clarion was just as hot from the floor as the Golden Eagles hit on 60.4% (29 of 48) of their action shots and hit five of nine (55.6%) of its trey attempts. The decisive scoring difference came at the foul line, as Clarion hit 13 of 19 (68.4%) of its charity tosses.

Clarion had a 26-24 advantage in rebounding, but also had more turnovers (17-16).

The Rock opened the game like a house afire as it roared to a 15-point (26-11) lead after nine and a half minutes of action.

The lead was shortlived, though, as Clarion put together a 14-0 run in just over four minutes to cut the margin to one point (26-25) with 6:30 left before halftime.

Two minutes later, The Rock had the lead back to five points, but the Green and White then had to weather another Clarion scoring storm to take a two-point (37-35) advantage into intermission.

SRU found itself down by 10 points on three occasions midway through the final 20 minutes of action -- the latter one a 61-51 deficit with 8:35 left -- before it went on a 16-6 run to tie the score at 67-67 with 3:00 left.

That set up a hectic final 180 seconds, during which time The Rock held a pair of leads -- 71-69 on a Marshall layup with 1:45 left and 74-73 on a Nero three-pointer with 7.5 seconds left.

But joy turned to utter shock when My'Kea Cohill nailed 12-foot "runner," was fouled and hit the free throw with 2.3 seconds left to snatch the victory away from The Rock.

Notes: Nero's 22-point scoring effort Sunday is the best by a Rock women's player since Jessica Schake scored 23 vs. California U. of Pa. on Jan. 11, 2006 ... Sunday's game was the final collegiate contest for Rock senior center Amanda Chojnacki ... Sunday's loss denied The Rock a fourth successive double-digit win total ... The 9-17 mark this winter matched the record of the 2002-03 squad and is the lowest win total since the 1996-97 squad was 2-23 ... The 3-9 PSAC-West mark this winter is the worst for a Rock women's team since the aforementioned '96-97 squad was winless in 12 division games.