SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Slippery Rock University led virtually from the opening tip to the final buzzer Saturday night in recording a 61-52 victory over visiting Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference interdivisional men's basketball action at Morrow Field House.

The score was tied at 2-2 and 4-4 early in the game, but The Rock never trailed as they extended their current win streak to three games and improved their season records to 8-4 overall and 5-3 in conference competition.

Shippensburg saw its season records fall to 6-8 and 3-5.

Senior point guard Jon Valeriano (pictured) scored a team-high 18 points and handed out four assists for The Rock, while junior forward Tabari Perry added 13 points and 10 rebounds and senior forward Devin Taylor finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The “double-double” performances were the team-high sixth for Taylor and the first for Perry.

Dane Lauber scored a game-high 19 points for Shippensburg and Will Royal added 10 points and 10 rebounds. Dylan Edgar grabbed eight rebounds.

With the win Saturday, Kevin Reynolds moved into a tie with Dave Rooney (1979-85) for fourth place on the SRU all-time wins list. Reynolds, who coached his 100th Rock game Saturday, has led the Green and White to a 65-35 record in four seasons. It's worth noting: The Rock had a 21-89 record in the 100 games preceding Reynolds' hiring in May 2008.

The Rock finished Saturday's game with a 43% (25-58) efficiency on their field-goal attempts with a 4-for-12 (33%) effort from 3-point range, but again struggled from the foul line as they made only seven of 13 (54%) charity tosses.

The hosts, who have now outrebounded all 12 opponents this winter, held a commanding 42-30 rebounding advantage in Saturday's game.

Shippensburg made 33% (18-54) of its action shots, hit four of 14 (29%) of its 3-point attempts and sank 12 of 18 (67%) free throws. The Red Raiders also had one less turnover than The Rock, 14-13.

The Rock broke the aforementioned 4-4 deadlock with a 10-0 run in the span of three minutes and held their largest lead of the first half at 23-12 with six minutes left before halftime.

Shippensburg clawed back to within four points, 26-22, by the time the teams headed into the intermission.

SRU opened the second half of action with a 12-4 run to take a 12-point, 38-26, lead with 17 minutes left to play and was up by 16 points (46-30) with 11:15 remaining before Shippensburg made its final run.

The Red Raiders outscored their hosts by a 21-5 margin in the next nine minutes to trim the deficit to only five, 51-46, with 2:15 left to play.

SRU responded with a 6-3 run in the next 30 seconds to take an eight-point, 57-49, lead with 1:45 left and never led by less than five points down the stretch.

Saturday's game was the fourth in a string of five consecutive home games The Rock will play. The homestand ends with an 8 p.m. game Wednesday vs. Lock Haven that will open the PSAC-Western Division season.