Boxscore

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Junior forward Maron Brown buried a 3-pointer with 10.1 seconds left to play Wednesday night to give the Slippery Rock University men's basketball team an 82-80 win over visiting Mercyhurst in Morrow Field House.

The win in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division opener for both teams improved SRU's overall record to 12-2, which is the best start by a Green and White team since 1953.

The win was the 33rd in 43 games under second-year Rock head coach Kevin Reynolds and moved him into a tie with Cliff Wettig (1973-75) for the most wins by a Rock head coach in his first two seasons.

The Rock goes in search of its next win Saturday when it travels to Edinboro for a 3 p.m. game. SRU then hosts Gannon in an 8 p.m. division game next Wednesday.

Brown finished the game with 23 points and 10 rebounds to record his sixth “double-double” of the season. He was one of three Rock players who had a double-digit scoring total in the game.

Junior guard Jabril Bailey scored a game-high 31 points and grabbed six rebounds for The Rock, senior guard Maurice Douglas had 13 points, nine rebounds and five assists and senior guard Andre Tarver added nine points and handed out five assists.

Jordan Armstrong scored a team-high 19 points for Mercyhurst (10-3), Heiden Ratner added 17 points and Christian Cornelius contributed 12 points and seven rebounds.

An ally-oop dunk by Cornelius with 26 seconds left to play gave Mercyhurst its final lead of the game and set the stage for Brown's game-winning shot.

The decisive trey accounted for the 11th lead change of the game in a nip-and-tuck contest that also saw the score tied on nine occasions.

The Rock finished the game with a 40% (26-67) efficiency on its field goal attempts that included a 31% (10-32) effort from beyond the 3-point arc. SRU sank 72% (18-25) of its free throws.

Mercyhurst, on the other hand, shot 47% (29-62) from the field, 39% (7-18) from 3-point range and 71% (15-21) from the foul line.

The Lakers held a slim 40-39 rebounding edge and had the higher number in a 16-10 turnover comparison.

The Rock scored 19 points off Mercyhurst mistakes while the Lakers logged 10 points off Rock errors.

Lost among all the numbers to the casual observer was the fact that SRU did not get a single point from one of its substitutes, whereas Mercyhurst had 26 “bench” points.

The Rock held an eight-point, 46-38 advantage at the end of the first half, which featured a series of scoring spurts by both teams.

SRU went on an 8-0 run to take a 10-3 lead after three minutes of play, only to see Mercyhurst respond with a 10-0 run to take a 15-10 lead with 12:30 remaining in the half.

That was the visitors' largest lead of the opening half.

But a 7-0 Rock run put the hosts back on top by a 17-15 score with 9:45 left before the Lakers went on a 6-0 run to take a 21-17 lead with eight minutes left.

The Rock came right back to run off 15 unanswered points and take a 34-23 lead with five minutes left.

That was the largest lead of the opening 20 minutes of action.

Mercyhurst clawed back with an 11-2 run to trim the deficit to two points, 36-34, with 2:45 left before intermission before The Rock closed out the stanza with a 10-4 run.

Bailey scored 18 points and Maron Brown added 13 to lead The Rock's first-half scoring attack. Armstrong had 13 points for the Lakers.

SRU shot 44% (15-34) from the field, 47% (7-15) from 3-point range and made nine of 10 free throws in the opening half.

Mercyhurst, meanwhile, shot 41% (14-34) from the field, hit four of 12 attempts from beyond the arc and sank six of seven free throws.

The Lakers had a 21-17 rebounding edge at halftime, but also had twice as many turnovers, 10-5. The Rock turned Mercyhurst miscues into 15 first-half points while the guests got seven points of Rock errors.

The tooth-and-nail battle resumed at the start of the second half.

The Lakers, after being down by nine points (51-42) with 18:30 left, went on a 23-9 run to take a 65-60 lead with 10 minutes remaining.

The visitors' comeback was aided by an ice-cold shooting effort by The Rock, who made only five of 20 shots from the field in the first 10 minutes of the second half. The hosts were 0-for-12 from 3-point range during that time span.

SRU regrouped and responded with a 14-6 run in the span of four-plus minutes to take a 74-71 lead with 3:30 left.

Mercyhurst tied the score at 74-74, 76-76 and 78-78 and then took an 80-78 lead on Cornelius' dunk before Brown buried his game-winning trey.

But the win wasn't secure until Mercyhurst turned the ball over with 0.9 seconds left to play.

Notes:

Bailey's point total Wednesday night was the highest recorded by a Rock player since Michael Evans Jr. scored 37 points Nov. 25, 2008, in a Rock win over Ashland (Ohio) … The 12-2 start this winter matched the win total recorded after 14 games by the 1952-53 team coached by Bob Smiley (13-3 final record) and the 1945-46 team coached by the legendary N. Kerr Thompson (19-4 final record) … Maron Brown has now scored 20 or more points in three consecutive games … Mercyhurst head coach Gary Manchel was a Rock assistant coach in the 1980s under Bob Barlett.