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SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -- The Rock shot 56.3% from the field Saturday morning en route to an easy 87-63 win over visiting Penn State New Kensington in non-conference action in Morrow Field House.

The win was the fourth in the last seven games for SRU, which now owns a 6-17 overall record.

On the flip side, Saturday's loss snapped a string of 16 successive wins by the guests, who fell to 17-3.

The Lions are the top-ranked team in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association and have already accepted a bid to play in that organization's national tournament later this month.

Penn State New Kensington was never really in Saturday's game. SRU had a 13-1 lead after four minutes of action, let the guests trim the margin to 15-10 and then sprinted away to a 45-23 halftime lead.

The largest lead of the game was a 31-point, 68-37, advantage with 11 minutes left to play.

The recipe for success was simple: SRU (6-17) hit 54.8% (17 of 31) of its shots from the floor in the first half of action and was even hotter in the final 20 minutes, when shot 57.6% (19 of 33).

The shots weren't all layups, either; SRU made 12 of 19 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc for a 63.2% efficiency in long-range bombs.

SRU also won the rebounding battle by a 34-26 margin.

The only areas in which The Rock did not shine were free throw shooting and turnovers. SRU made only three of 10 charity tosses and committed 17 turnovers.

But Saturday's rout gave second-year Rock head coach Jamal Palmer a chance to substitute freely. Eight players logged more than 17 minutes of action and all 10 players saw more than 13 minutes of playing time.

The Rock attack featured four players with double-digit scoring totals.

Junior wing player Erroll Robinson scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while junior point guard Darnell Johnson and freshman shooting guard Itay Levy each also scored 14 points.

Junior wing player Jamar Scales chipped in 12 points, while sophomore point guard Rashiid Coleman (pictured above) had nine points, nine assists and five rebounds and sophomore post player Lonnie Perry grabbed eight rebounds.

Penn State New Kensington was led by RJ Hurt's game-high 26 points, while Michael Fisher added 13 points and Zack Ziemanski handed out nine assists.

The Rock returns to action Wednesday, when it will host Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division archrival Indiana U. of Pa. in an 8 p.m. game in Morrow Field House.

SRU needs to win Wednesday's game to remain in the hunt for a PSAC playoff berth.

The Rock has not competed in the conference playoffs since the 1999-2000 season, when SRU played in the conference finals.