Boxscore
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -- A six-pronged attack carried the Slippery Rock University men's basketball team to an easy 102-65 win Wednesday night over visiting Lock Haven and into the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference postseason tournament.
Six players scored 10 or more points in the winning attack as The Rock improved its overall record to 17-7 and its PSAC-Western Division mark to 8-3.
Coupled with Edinboro's loss Wednesday night at division co-leader Gannon, the win moved SRU into sole possession of third place in the division standings. The Green and White trail Gannon and Indiana (Pa.) by one game and lead Edinboro by the same one-game margin.
Most importantly, Wednesday's win -- SRU's fifth straight -- propelled The Rock into the PSAC tournament for the first time since the 1999-2000 season, when the Green and White played in the conference championship game.
Lock Haven saw its season records drop to 4-20, 2-9.
Senior wingman
Jamar Scales led The Rock attack with 19 points, junior guard
Maurice Douglas added 14 points and five assists and junior guard
Bryen Spriggs chipped in 13 points and seven rebounds.
Scales and Spriggs both came off the bench to reach double figures, while Douglas was in the starting lineup.
Junior shooting guard
Michael Evans Jr., freshman guard
Tommy Kelly and senior forward
Denell Stephens each contributed 10 points to the winning cause.
Senior guard
Kyle Camper handed out 11 assists to move into a tie for the single-season handouts record, scored eight points and grabbed seven rebounds, while sophomore forward
Maron Brown grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds.
The Rock finished the game with a 52.6% (40 of 76) efficiency on its field goal attempts, nailed 12 of 35 (34.3%) shots from 3-point range and canned 10 of 16 (62.5%) of its free throws.
Lock Haven, meanwhile, shot 42.6% (23 of 54) from the field, hit four of 12 treys and sank 15 of 23 (65.2%) free throws.
SRU had a commanding 42-31 advantage in rebounds and committed only six turnovers while forcing the Bald Eagles into 16 miscues.
The Rock ran out to an 8-0 lead in the first minute-plus of action and never broke stride thereafter.
Lock Haven trimmed the margin to seven points, 28-21, with 8:45 left before halftime but The Rock responded to instructions given during a 30-second timeout called by their first-year head coach,
Kevin Reynolds, to outscore the guests by a 29-12 margin heading into the intermission.
The Rock lead was never less than 19 points in the final 20 minutes of action and reached a crescendo at 37 points on two occasions in the final 90 seconds, the latter one standing as the final score.
The Rock returns to action at 3 p.m. Sunday, when it will visit Clarion for a division game, then visits California for an 8 p.m. game next Wednesday before playing its final regular-season home game Feb. 28 against Indiana.
If The Rock finishes first or second in the final PSAC-West standings, SRU will host a first-round conference tournament game March 3 and be in line to host the conference's final-four competition March 6-7.
Notes:
In other PSAC-West action Wednesday, indiana nipped California 60-58, Gannon downed Edinboro 79-62 and Clarion beat Mercyhurst 69-66. Those results left Gannon (21-3, 9-2) and indiana (20-4, 9-2) tied for the top spot in the division standings, followed by The Rock with Edinboro (17-7, 7-4) in fourth place. Gannon, Indiana and The Rock are assured of berths in the conference tournament. Edinboro can become the fourth West team to advance with a win Saturday over California.
With Wednesday's win, this year's Rock squad matched the win total of SRU's 1999-2000 conference runner-up squad, which had a 17-12 final record. The last Rock team to win more than 17 games was the 1990-91 squad that compiled a 23-9 record. That squad was the latest in a string of three Rock contingents to finish a season with 23 wins.
The Rock earned its first regional ranking since the early 1990s when it grabbed the No. 10 spot in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional poll released Wednesday evening.
Camper now shares Thje Rock single-season assists mark with Brent Schrempf (1993-94) and is tied for fourth on the PSAC season list. He needs 14 more assists to set a new conference record.
Scales' team-high scoring total Wednesday night improved his career count to 1,076 points and moved him into 18th place on SRU's all-time scoring list. He needs 12 points to move ahead of Curt Williams (1984-88) into 17th place, 25 points to take over 16th place (Kevin Williams, 1982-86) and 28 points to leap into 13th place.
The Rock's 10-win improvement over last winter's total of seven matches the largest one-game leap in school history. Dave Rooney's coached the 1981-82 team to 16 wins one season after finishing with only six wins.
Reynolds' rookie season win total of 17 is two better than the previous school-record of 15 set by Cliff Wettig (15-8) in 1973-74.
