Boxscore

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – For the second straight game, a furious comeback effort wasn't enough to spell victory for the Slippery Rock University men's basketball team Wednesday night.

The Rock suffered its fourth defeat in the last six games when Gannon handed the Green and White an 81-63 setback in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division action in Morrow Field House.

SRU will take a 12-4 overall record and a 1-2 PSAC-West mark into its next game, a 3 p.m. date Saturday with Clarion on the Golden Eagles' home court.

Senior guard Michael Evans Jr. scored a team-high 19 points for The Rock in Wednesday's loss, while junior guard Jabril Bailey added 15 points and junior forward Maron Brown chipped in 12 points and 10 rebounds.

The “double-double” was the team-high eighth of the season for Brown and his third in as many games. 

Tanner Furno scored a game-high 27 points and Larry Swann added 24 for Gannon (7-8, 2-1).

The Rock trailed by 30 points with 17 minutes left to play before it clawed back to trim the margin to 13 points on a pair of occasions.

A frigid shooting effort severely hampered The Rock's victory hopes. The Green and White shot an icy-cold 26% (17-66) from the field in the game with a 21% (6-29) efficiency from 3-point range. SRU made 23 of 29 (79%) free throws.

Gannon, on the other hand, hit 57% (30-53) of its field goal attempts and 58% (7-12) of its long-range bombs. The Golden Knights canned 14 of 20 (70%) of its free throw opportunities.

The guests also enjoyed a 45-32 rebounding advantage to help offset their committing more turnovers, 21-15.

Gannon doubled SRU's point production “in the paint,” 32-16, and had a 33-7 advantage in scoring “off the bench.”

The Rock trailed by 21 points, 48-27, at halftime after it shot a frigid 29% (9-31) from the field in the opening 20 minutes. Over half the Green and White shots came from beyond the 3-point arc; SRU hit only four of 17 (24%) long-range bombs.

SRU experienced the same frustrations from the foul line, where it sank only five of nine attempts.

Gannon, on the other hand, hit a red-hot 67% (20 of 30) of its field goal attempts, including a 6-of-9 efficiency from 3-point range. The guests were 2-of-4 from the foul line.

The 27 points scored by The Rock in the first 20 minutes represented its lowest opening-half total of the season.

Gannon never trailed in the game as the Golden Knights scored the first four and 11 of the first 16 points in the game.

The Rock cut the margin to four points on two occasions in the first half but was down by nine points, 22-13, at the midway mark of the stanza.

Gannon closed out the opening 20 minutes of action with an 8-0 run and added the first nine points of the final half to extend its lead to 30 points, 57-27, lead with 17 minutes left in the game.

The Rock went on a 12-0 run in the next three and a half minutes to trim the margin to 18 points, 57-39, with 13:30 remaining.

A little more than three minutes later, The Rock had trimmed the deficit to 13 points, 61-48. But Gannon bounced back with an 13-5 run to push the margin to 21 points, 74-53, with 5:30 left.

An 8-0 Rock run in the next two and half minutes cut the margin back to 13 points, 74-61, with three minutes remaining but that would be the extent of any Rock comeback.