Boxscore
ERIE, Pa. -- As anticipated, the Slippery Rock University men's basketball team got into an NBA-style shootout Friday night against Kutztown University in semifinal action of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference tournament at the Hammermill Center on the campus of Gannon University.
Unfortunately for The Rock, a 45.8% shooting effort from the floor wasn't enough to carry them to victory.
Kutztown hit a blistering 61.2% (41 of 67) of its action shots and prevailed by a 103-90 score.
The win was the 15th in a row for the No. 21 team in last week's National Association of Basketball Coaches national poll and No. 2 team in the most recent NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional ranking.
With the win, Kutztown (26-3) advanced to Saturday's 7 p.m. conference championship game against either Gannon or Cheyney.
The Rock, the No. 9 team in last week's regional ranking, saw its nine-game win streak come to an end and must now wait anxiously to see if its 21-8 record will be sufficient to earn SRU its first NCAA regional berth since 1991.
The eight regional berths will be awarded Sunday night. Regional tournament action will be held next weekend.
The Rock scoring attack Friday night was led by forwards
Maron Brown and
Denell Stephens, who each scored 25 points. Brown also grabbed 11 rebounds, while Stephens snared nine.
Rock point guard
Kyle Camper virtually all the final 10 minutes of the first half due to foul trouble and chipped in 12 points and five assists.
Kutztown's attack was paced by Stephen Dennis's game-high 32 points, 28 of which came in the opening half of action. Dave Ben added 122 points and Ryan Washington 18.
Friday's game featured the top two scoring teams in the conference and lived up to its pregame billing.
Kutztown, behind a 70% (21 of 30) shooting effort in the first half, held a 56-44 lead at the intermission.
The Rock, which shot a respectable 43.6% (17 of 39) from the field in the opening 20 minutes, trimmed the deficit to four points on three occasions in the middle portion of the second half but could not overcome the halftime deficit.
The Golden Bears cooled off to a 54.1% (20 of 37) shooting effort in the second half, while The Rock warmed up to a 48.5% (16 of 33) efficiency.
Kutztown hit 14 of 20 (70%) of its free throws and nailed seven fo 15 (46.7%) of its 3-point attempts.
The Rock, meanwhile, hit 15 of 18 (83.3%) of its charity tosses and buried nine of 24 (37.5%) from beyond the arc.
SRU played catch-up for almost the entire game after holding a 5-2 lead one minute into action.
Kutztown scored seven straight points to take a 9-5 lead and never trailed thereafter.
The Rock deficit was only three points, 26-23, at the midway mark of the first half but Kutztown went on an 11-5 run in the next four minutes to take a 37-28 lead with six minutes left before the intermission.
SRU trimmed the margin to four points on four occasions in the next four minutes before Kutztown closed out the period with an 11-3 run to take the 12-point lead into halftime.
The Rock got to within four points five and a half minutes into the final period, when the score stood at 62-58, and then traded baskets with the Golden Bears for the next three minutes.
A 9-1 Kutztown run in the span of three minutes pushed what was a 66-62 game into a 75-63 difference. The Golden Bears' lead was never less than nine points the rest of the way.
