Final statistics

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Senior guard Jabril Bailey recorded a 17-point, 11-rebound “double-double” Saturday afternoon to lead the Slippery Rock University men's basketball team to a hard-fought 69-64 win over visiting Bloomsburg in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference “crossover” action in Morrow Field House.

Bailey was one of four Rock players to finish the game with a double-figure scoring total as the Green and White recorded a victory for the second time in as many games this winter.

Senior guard Cecil Brown came off the bench to score 13 points and grab five rebounds, junior forward Maron Brown added 11 points and seven rebounds and senior guard Andre Tarver contributed 10 points before he fouled out.

Senior guard Maurice Douglas also had seven points, nine assists and five rebounds for The Rock.

Bailey and Cecil Brown each nailed three 3-pointers to lead a Rock attack that featured 10 field goals in 35 attempts (29%) from beyond the arc.

SRU finished the game with a 36% (24 of 66) efficiency in field goal shooting and had a frigid 48% (11 of 23) showing from the foul line.

Larry Webster scored 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead Bloomsburg (0-2).

The Huskies shot 40% (25 of 62) from the field, an ice-old one of nine (11%) from 3-point range and 52% (13 of 25) from the foul line.

Bloomsburg, behind a 25-6 advantage in the second half, outrebounded The Rock by a 48-43 margin, but was on the high side of a 16-12 turnover comparison.

The Rock scored the first six points of the game and, on the strength of a 4-for-5 efficiency from 3-point range, held a 17-8 lead with 15 minutes left in the first half.

But Bloomsburg roared back to tie the score at 17-17 with 10:45 left before The Rock finished the first half with a 20-10 scoring advantage to take a 37-27 advantage into intermission.

Bailey led The Rock's first-half effort with 11 points and seven rebounds, Tarver added eight points and Evans seven.

Webster and Ed Hall, who finished the game with 11 points, had seven first-half points each for Bloomsburg.

The Rock shot 37% (13 of 35) from the field in the first half with a 6-of-19 (32%) efficiency from beyond the arc and was five of nine (56%) from the foul line.

Bloomsburg, meanwhile, shot 35% (12 of 34) from the field, was one of five from 3-point range and four of 10 from the charity stripe.

SRU held a 37-23 rebounding advantage at halftime.

The Rock scored the first four points of the second half to expand its lead to 12 points, 41-29, with only 45 seconds elapsed in the final half.

Bloomsburg refused to go away, though, and battled back to take a 54-53 lead with nine minutes left in the game.

Five and a half minutes later, the margin was again only one point, this time with The Rock on top by a 63-62 count.

The Rock then scored four unanswered points to hold a 67-62 lead with two minutes left.

For all intents and purposes, that mini run iced the win for The Rock as neither team scored in the next one minute and 50 seconds.

A pair of successful free throws by Douglas with 7.5 seconds left answered two Huskies charity tosses and accounted for the final margin.

The Rock is idle for eight days before it hosts Seton Hill in a 7 p.m. non-conference game Nov. 30. That will be the first of three games the Green and White will play in the span of six days. They will meet District of Columbia and Queens (N.Y.) on back-to-back days Dec. 4 and 5 in the East Stroudsburg Classic.

Notes: Myron Brown, The Rock's all-time leading scorer and a second-round draft pick of the NBA Minnesota Timberwolves, had his uniform retired during a halftime ceremony. He was the first Rock men's basketball player to receive the honor.