SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -- Senior postman Denell Stephens scored a game-high 21 points Wednesday night to lead The Rock to its most impressive win of the season, an 82-72 upset of fourth-ranked Gannon University in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division action in Morrow Field House.

The win improved The Rock's overall record to 15-7 and its division mark to 6-3.

More importantly, the triumph narrowed to only one game the margin between SRU and division tri-leaders -- Edinboro, Gannon and Indiana (Pa.) -- in the PSAC-West standings.

The win, coupled with California's win over Clarion and Mercyhurst's loss to Edinboro in other PSAC-West action Wednesday, gives The Rock breathing room in the chase for a berth in the PSAC tournament.

Edinboro (17-5), Gannon (18-3) and Indiana (18-4) all own 7-2 division records. The Rock is in fourth place at 6-3, with California two games back at 4-5 and Mercyhurst three games back at 3-6.

The Rock travels to Edinboro for a 3 p.m. game Saturday. In other action that day, Gannon is at Clarion and Indiana is a Mercyhurst.

The top four teams at the end of regular-season competition Feb. 28 will advance to the conference tournament.

The Rock has not competed in the conference tournament since the 1999-2000 team advanced to the championship game.

Adding sweetness to  Wednesday's win was the fact that the victory also avenged a 20-point, 80-60, loss to the Golden Knights' in the teams' first meeting Jan. 21 in Erie and snapped a seven-game win streak for Gannon.

Stephens (pictured above) was one of four Rock players who finished the game with double-digit scoring totals.

Maurice Douglas scored 18 points, Kyle Camper added 14 points and 13 assists and Maron Brown contributed 12 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

Kyle Goldcamp scored 15 points to lead a list of five Gannon players with 10 or more points. Pierre Howard added 14 points, Joe Lindsey and Tyler Stoczynski 13 each and Geroge Johnson added 10 points.

The Rock finished the game with an admirable 49.1% (28 of 57) efficiency on its field goal attempts, hit seven fo 24 (29.2%) shots from 3-point range and canned 19 fo 25 (76%) free throws.

Gannon shot 42.6% (26 of 61) from the field, hit five of 17 (29.4%) treys and nailed 15 of 22 (68.2%) free throws.

The Golden Knights held a 39-34 advantage in rebounds but had more turnovers, 13-11.

The largest lead in the closely contested game was an 11-point (66-55) Rock lead with 6:45 left in the game. Gannon trimmed the margin to four points (68-64) with 3:30 left but could not get any closer.

SRU held a six-point (41-35) advantage at the intermission and trailed on only two occasions -- both of which were one-point deficits (48-47 and 50-49) -- in the final 20 minutes of action.

The score was tied three times and the lead changed hands seven times in the first half of action.

Notes:

With the win, Kevin Reynolds tied Cliff Wettig (15-8 in 1973-74) for the most wins by a first-year Rock head coach ... Camper now ranks second on SRU's single-season assists chart with 237. he needs 23 in the final five regular-season games to surpass Brent Schrempf (1994-95) as the school record-holder. Camper ranks eighth on the PSAC single-season assists chart and needs 37 to set a new conference mark.