Boxscore

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team handed Atlantic Region rival Seton Hill University a 77-72 defeat Saturday in non-conference action at Morrow Field House.

With the win, The Rock improves to 3-1 this season. Seton Hill drops to 1-3.

Senior forward Devin Taylor led all scorers with a double-double effort of 22 points and 11 rebounds, while junior guard John Bayardelle added 14 points and seven rebounds and junior guard Aubin Reeves chipped in 13 points and four assists.

The double-double was the second recorded this winter by Taylor, the only Rock player to achieve the feat this winter.

Oliver Lewinson led Seton Hill with 18 points and seven rebounds, David Windsor chipped in 13 points and Matt Miller added 10 points.

The Rock finished the game with a 45% (28-62) shooting effort from the floor after hitting 51% (18-35) of its first-half attempts. SRU hit on six of 15 (40%) shots from behind the 3-point arc and sank 15 of 18 (83%) free throws. The hosts also had a 39-33 rebounding advantage but were on the high side of a 15-13 turnover comparison.

Seton Hill shot 47% (28-60) from the field, 25% (2-8) from 3-point range and 70% (14-20) from the foul line.

The score was tied on eight occasions, the final one coming with 1:40 left when the teams were deadlocked at 72-72. The Rock then made five of six free throw attempts down the stretch to set the final margin. Seton Hill attempted only two shots from the floor and was 0-for-2 from the foul line in the final 1:40 of action.

The Rock never trailed in the final 37-plus minutes of action after Seton Hill held a 5-4 edge with 17:54 left in the first half.

A layup by Taylor gave SRU a 6-5 edge and began a 12-4 run that pushed the hosts up by seven points, 16-9, with 12:30 left in the first half. Seton Hill battled back to tie the score for the fourth time in the game at 29-29 with 6:17 left before halftime and the count was even on two other occasions before The Rock closed out the opening stanza with a 10-4 run to take a 43-37 lead into the intermission.

SRU scored the first four points of the second half in the span of 30 seconds to take its largest lead of the game, an 11-point, 48-37 advantage and held a nine-point (52-43) lead with 16 minutes left before the Griffins scored six unanswered points to close the gap to three points, 52-49, with 13:30 remaining.

The Rock pushed the lead back to eight points on three occasions in the next six minutes, the last one a 65-57 lead with 7:30 remaining, but the guests refused to go home quietly.

A free throw by Rodrigo Peggau tied the score at 70-70 with 2:23 left to play. Reeves then scored on a layup to put The Rock up by two,  but Lewinson answered with a basket from in close to tie the score at 72-72.

Taylor hit one of two free throws with 0:41 left to put The Rock on top for good, 73-72. Senior guard Jon Valeriano, who finished the game with eight points, and Taylor each buried both of their free-throw opportunities in the final 30 seconds to set the final margin.

The Rock will be idle for a full week before they host East Stroudsburg (3-3 overall, 1-1 PSAC) in the first of crucial back-to-back Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference "crossover" games next Saturday. Kutztown (2-2, 1-1) comes calling the following day. Both games are set to tip off at 3 p.m. in Morrow Field House.

Kutztown (2-2) and East Stroudsburg each received three first-place votes in preseason voting by the PSAC-Eastern Division head coaches and finished 1-2 in the preseason poll as the teams to beat in the division. SRU was picked to finish fifth in the PSAC-West race.

Notes:

The Rock made 32 of 37 (86.5%) free throws in its back-to-back wins over Millersville and Seton Hill after hitting 26 of 49 (53%) in its opening two games, a season-opening win over Westminster and a loss at West Chester ... Saturday's win was the 60th recorded by a Kevin Reynolds-coached Rock team. Reynolds, who owns a 60-32 (.652) record, has the best win total recorded by a Rock head coach in his first four seasons. The old mark was 52 by Hank Baierl (1958-62) ... Reynolds is four wins away from moving ahead of Arthur Gant (1912-18) and into fourth place on SRU's all-time wins list and six wins away from displacing Bob Barlett (1985-94) in third place.