ERIE, Pa. – Hosting Mercyhurst College overcame a strong second-half comeback by Slippery Rock University to record a 64-62 victory Saturday afternoon in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division men's basketball action.

The Rock trailed by 17 points (48-31) with 13 minutes left to play before they went on a 24-7 run to knot the score at 55-55 with 6:45 remaining.

Mercyhurst answered that SRU rally with a 6-0 run, but did not lock up the win until a last-second shot by The Rock's Aubin Reeves was unsuccessful.

The loss ended a string of four straight victories for The Rock, who saw their season records drop to 9-5 overall and 6-4 in PSAC action.

The Rock will look to regain their winning way Wednesday when they travel to division rival California (Pa.) for a 7:30 p.m. game.

With the win Saturday, Mercyhurst also owned a 9-5 overall record and improved its PSAC record to 7-3.

Senior guard Jon Valeriano scored a team-high 16 points for The Rock, while junior forward Tabari Perry added 11 points and senior center Luiz Santos (pictured) contributed 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The “double-double” was Santos' second of the season.

Senior forward Devin Taylor, SRU's leading scorer at 13.6 points per game, was held to only four points Saturday. But the PSAC's leading rebounder matched his per-game average with a game-high 12 boards.

Reeves, a junior guard, and freshman guard Chaquille Pratt each added seven points for SRU. Pratt also grabbed five rebounds in a substitute role.

Steven Coleman scored a game-high 18 points and had seven rebounds to lead Mercyhurst, while Matt Lee scored 15 points and Paul Bilbo added 13 points and seven rebounds.

Final statistics showed The Rock made 41% (23-56) of their field-goal attempts, a mark pulled down by a 17% (2-12) effort from 3-point range, and hit 64% (14-22) of their free throws.

Mercyhurst made 32% (20-63) of its action shots, with a 17% (3-18) showing from beyond the arc, and canned 21 of 27 (78%) free throws.

SRU opened Saturday's game with a 10-0 run in the first two and a half minutes of action before the Lakers responded with a 15-5 spurt and tied the score at 15-15 with 12:00 left to play in the first half.

Thirty seconds later, the score was tied at 17-17 when Coleman sank a free throw to give Mercyhurst its first lead of the game.

The Lakers never trailed thereafter.

Mercyhurst held a nine-point, 33-24, lead with just over a minute left in the first half and took an eight-point, 35-27, advantage into the intermission.

The Rock scored the first four points of the second half to trim the margin to four, 35-31, only to have the hosts run off 13 unanswered points in less than three minutes for a 48-31 advantage with 13:20 left to play.

Undaunted, SRU came right back with the aforementioned 24-7 run to tie the score at 55-55 with 6:45 left to play. The guests had a chance to take the lead when Pratt stepped to the foul line for two shots with The Rock down by one, 55-54.

Mercyhurst held a pair of six-point leads in the next four minutes, the latter a 63-57 margin with 2:45 left, before The Rock began its final comeback.

Valeriano made two free throws with one minute left to bring The Rock to within one, 63-62 and Taylor grabbed a defensive rebound on the ensuing Mercyhurst possession to give SRU a chance to take the lead. But a jumper by Reeves with 14 seconds left to play missed the mark.

SRU quickly committed a personal foul to stop the clock. Andrew Rickard made the first free throw and missed the second to leave the margin at two points and set up SRU's last shot, but Reeves' layup attempt at the buzzer was unsuccessful.