ERIE, Pa. -- Mercyhurst University rode a 41-18 scoring run during a 20-minute span midway through Tuesday night's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference men's basketball quarterfinal game to a 77-69 win over visiting Slippery Rock University.

SRU held a 32-23 lead with just under four minutes left to play in the first half before the Lakers turned the tide to hand The Rock (17-10) their third loss in the last four games.

Mercyhurst, which won two of three meetings with The Rock this winter, will take an 18-9 record into Friday night's semifinal game against Kutztown/East Stroudsburg.

Senior Devin Taylor scored a team-high 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds and classmate Torrance Timothy added 13 points in their final Rock games Tuesday night. Junior Aubin Reeves scored 12 points, junior Tabari Perry added nine points and nine rebounds and junior Luiz Santos chipped in eight points and seven rebounds.

Matt Lee scored a game-high 19 points for Mercyhurst, while Luis Leao added 18 points, Bill Weaver 11 points and Jonathan Ouegnin nine points and team-high nine rebounds.

SRU finished the game with a 43% (29-68) efficiency from the field, made 27% (7-26) of its 3-point shots and four of eight free throws.

Mercyhurst also shot 43% (25-58) from field, hit seven of 18 (39%) 3-point shots and canned 20 of 28 (71%) free throws. The Lakers shot 55% (16-29) from the field in the second half of action after hitting only 31% (9-29) of their shots in the opening 20 minutes.

The Rock committed 20 turnovers in the game, one shy of its season-high total. The hosts turned those errors into 23 points, while SRU forced the Lakers into 11 miscues, which resulted in 13 Rock points.

SRU had a 43-32 rebounding advantage. That marked the 23rd time in 27 games this winter The Rock outrebounded their opponents.

The Rock controlled the action in the opening half, but had only a three-point,32-29, lead to show for it at the intermission after Mercyhurst closed out the stanza with a 6-0 run.

The narrow halftime margin was especially frustrating for The Rock in light of the fact the Lakers made only 31% (9-29) of their first-half field goal attempts, compared to a 46% (13-28) efficiency for SRU.

Reeves scored eight first-half points, Taylor added seven and freshman Chaquille Pratt chipped in six to lead The Rock attack. Pratt did not score any second-half points.

Leao had eight first-half points and Lee six for the Lakers.

The Rock held a four-point, 40-36, lead after four minutes of action in the second half before the hosts scored eight unanswered points to take a 44-40 lead with 14:15 left to play in the game.

Mercyhurst never trailed thereafter and held its largest lead at 64-50 with four minutes left to play.

The Rock didn't go down without a fight, though, as they trimmed the margin to five points, 68-63, with 1:45 left to play.

Notes:

Tuesday's game marked the third time in Kevin Reynolds' four seasons as head coach that SRU appeared in the PSAC tournament. Prior to this year, SRU had not appeared in the PSAC tournament in back-to-back seasons since 1991, when Bob Barlett-coached Rock teams ended a string of four consecutive trips to postseason competition … Tuesday's loss denied SRU its third conference semifinal berth under Reynolds' guidance … Five Rock seniors (Taylor, Timothy, John Bossle, Tommy Kelly and Jon Valeriano) closed out their careers Tuesday night… With the win Tuesday, the Lakers took a 20-19 lead in the all-time series.