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SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Sophomore wing player
Julie Molloy scored a team-high 17 points Saturday afternoon in The Rock's 62-59 loss to visiting Lock Haven in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division action in Morrow Field House.
The loss was the fifth straight suffered by The Rock, who fell to 7-15 overall and into last place in the PSAC-West with a 1-6 mark.
Lock Haven won for only the second time in its last eight games and improved its record to 7-15 overall, 2-5 in PSAC-West action.
Kristin Kudrick scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Lauren Kelshaw added 16 points and six rebounds for Lock Haven.
Kelshaw converted both ends of a one-and-one situation with nine seconds left to play to give Lock Haven its final three-point lead.
A pair of Rock 3-point attempts in the final seconds failed to find the mark.
The Rock finished the game with a 41.7% (20 of 48) efficiency from the field, shot 26.7% (4 of 15) from 3-point range and hit 71.4% (15 of 21) of its free throws.
Lock Haven, meanwhile, shot 44.4% (24 of 54) from the field, 18.2% (2 of 11) from beyond the arc and 80% (12 of 15) from the foul line.
The Bald Eagles also won the rebounding battle, 30-20, and came up on the lower end of a 24-21 turnover comparison.
SRU led for virtually the entire second half of action, including a seven-point (54-47) advantage with five minutes remaining but was outscored by a 15-5 margin in the closing minutes.
The largest leads of the game were a pair of eight-point Rock advantages, 15-7 and 49-41.
The first half of action featured a series of scoring spurts by the teams.
The Rock jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead on back-to-back treys by Molloy and Nero – who added a free throw for a rare four-point play -- in the first minute of action.
Lock Haven responded with seven unanswered points to tie the score with 16:30 left in the first half, only to see SRU score eight unanswered points.
The guests ran off six straight points to trim the margin to two points, 15-13, before SRU strung together five points to push the margin to seven, 20-13.
Lock Haven came right back with a nine-point run to take its first lead of the game, 22-20, with 5:45 remaining.
SRU responded with three straight points to retake the lead, 23-22, with 3:30 left and Lock Haven came right back to score four straight points before The Rock scored the final three points of the half to send the teams into intermission deadlocked at 26-26.
The Rock shot a frigid 35% (9 of 25) from the field in the first half with a 3-for-10 effort from beyond the arc and a 65% (5 of 8) efficiency from the foul line.
Lock Haven shot 44% (11 of 25) from the field, an icy 14.3% (1 of 7) from 3-point range and 60% (3 of 5) from the foul line. The Bald Eagles also held a 16-12 rebounding edge and forced The Rock into 15 turnovers while only committing five miscues.
The Rock returns to action Wednesday at Edinboro, and then is idle for a week before hosting 10th-ranked and PSAC-West-leading Indiana (Pa.) Feb. 20.
