Boxscore
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team put together one of its finest all-around efforts of the season Saturday afternoon to record an 82-46 win over visiting Mercyhurst College in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division action in Morrow Field House.
With the win, The Rock improved its overall record to 8-13 and its PSAC-West mark to 3-5.
The loss dropped Mercyhurst's records to 7-12 overall, 3-5 in division action.
Saturday's win avenged an 80-66 Rock loss Jan. 14 at Mercyhurst.
SRU and Mercyhurst are now tied with Edinboro for fourth place in the PSAC-West standings. An Indiana win over Clarion in Saturday night action would drop Clarion into a four-way tie for fourth place.
Fourth place is significant since the top four teams in the standings at the end of regular-season action will advance to the conference playoffs.
The Rock seeks to return to the conference playoffs after a two-year hiatus.
Saturday's winning effort represented The Rock's second-best offensive and defensive outputs of the season. The only time this winter the Green and White scored most points, won by a larger margin and/or held a team to fewer points was a 111-39 win Dec. 4 over Salem International (W. Va.) in Morrow Field House.
Sales grabbed a team-high seven rebounds, Presto six and
Alissa Schake five. Schake also handed out six assists and had three steals.
Amy Achesinski led Mercyhurst in scoring with 13 points.
The combination of red-hot shooting by The Rock and ice-cold shooting by Mercyhurst resulted in a 26-point, 43-17, Rock advantage at the intermission and took away any suspense as to the final outcome.
SRU was successful on 17 of 28 (60.7%) of its shots from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, while the Lakers made only six of 22 (27.3%) of their action shots.
The guests were 0-for-9 from 3-point range and 5 of 10 (50%) from the foul line. SRU hit two of six shots from beyond the arc and seven of 10 free throws.
SRU also forced the guests into 17 first-half turnovers while committing 10 miscues. The teams finished the game with 28 and 21 turnovers, respectively.
The Rock finished the game with a 54.5% (30 of 55) efficiency in field goal attempts, nailed three of nine 3-point shots and canned 73.1% (19 of 26) of its free throws.
Mercyhurst finished the game with 31.5% (17 of 54) reading from the field, hit two of 19 (10.5%) of its long-range shots and 10 of 19 (52.6%) of its free throws.
The Rock scored the first six points of the game before Mercyhurst put together a 5-0 run to trim the margin to one (6-5) with 14:30 left in the first half.
SRU came right back with a 15-1 run of its own in the next four minutes to take a 21-6 lead. The hosts enjoyed three 24-point advantages before they took their largest first-half lead into the locker room at halftime.
The Rock lead was never less than 24 points in the final 20 minutes of action and reached its highest point at 39 points (75-36) with seven minutes left to play.
SRU returns to action Wednesday, when it will host division rival Gannon University in a 6 p.m. game in Morrow Field House.
