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SHIPPENSBURG, Pa.-The Rock was unable to make it three in a row as Shippensburg recorded its first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division win of the season, 69-48, over the Green and White.
The Rock had been riding a two-game winning streak with wins over Penn State New Kensington (87-63) and PSAC-West rival Indiana U. of Pa. (73-68).
The loss to Shippensburg has significant meaning as SRU is tied with IUP for fourth- place in the PSAC-West standings. Both SRU and IUP went into Saturday's competition with 4-5 conference records. SRU is now 4-6 in the PSAC-West and 7-18 overall. IUP plays division-leading California U. of Pa. (9-0 PSAC-West) and (20-4 overall) tonight, February 23, at 7:30.
Both California and Edinboro University (8-1 PSAC-West) and (19-5 overall) have already clinched playoff spots.
Clarion University (6-4 PSAC-West) and (14-10 overall) sits in third place in the PSAC-West standings. Clarion hosts United States Collegiate Athletic Association member Briarcliffe College of New York on Sunday, February 24 at 2 p.m.
IUP plays last-place Shippensburg on February 27, as The Rock will travel to division-leading California. The Rock then closes out its regular-season schedule with a March 1 home game vs. third-place Clarion, while IUP takes on sixth-place Lock Haven in its finale.
SRU has not earned a PSAC playoff berth since the 1999-2000 season, when the Green and White played in the conference finals.
In Saturday's game Shippensburg jumped out to a 10-0 lead as The Rock did not score their first points until the 14:37 mark off an Erroll Robinson three-pointer.
The entire Rock bench saw considerable amounts of playing time as no-one played under 11-minutes.
Jamar Scales had a team-high 10 points in 28-minutes of action and Darnell Johnson followed close behind with nine-points in 34-minutes of action.
Rashid Coleman contributed seven-points in 12-mintues of action and Itay Levy had six-points off two Three-pointers in 20-minutes of action.
Shippensburg would take a 33-26 lead into the half. The Rock came out of the half and cut the Red Raiders lead to two-points at the 18:10 mark. That would be as close as The Green and White would come as Shippensburg would close out the game on a 36-17 run making the final score 69-48.
Shippensburg controlled all aspects of Saturday's game as The Red Raiders out-rebounded The Rock by a 42-34 margin and forced SRU to commit 20 turnovers.
The Rock only shot 30.4% (17-56) from the floor for the game. 30.0% (9-30) in the first half and 30.8% (8-26) in the second half.
From three-point range SRU shot 30% (6-20) for the game. 38.5% (5-13) in the first half and 14.3% (1-7) in the second half.
Shippensburg shot 40.8% (20-49) from the floor for the game. Ship was 5-15 from beyond the arc for 33.3% for the game.
