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SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. –
Slippery Rock University never trailed in Saturday afternoon's battle of the top two teams in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division standings, but had to withstand a frenetic finish to record a 70-69 home victory over 14th-ranked Indiana U. of Pa. in Morrow Field House.
With their fourth consecutive win and fifth in the last six games, The Rock (19-6 overall, 16-5 PSAC) moved into a tie with IUP (20-5, 16-5) for the top spot in the PSAC-West standings with one regular-season game left on each team's schedule.
The Rock held a 10-point, 68-58, lead with 2:30 left to play in Saturday's game before they got outscored by an 11-2 margin down the stretch.
The Green and White were their own worst enemies as they missed four of six free throws in the final 20 seconds that would have put the win on ice.
Instead, the hosts were forced to hold their collective breaths as a potential game-winning 3-point shot by IUP's Marcel Souberbielle from just inside the halfcourt stripe clanged off the back of the rim as the final buzzer sounded.
Once the suspense was over, the playing court at Morrow Field House became a virtual mosh pit as the partisan crowd joined Rock in celebration of the win.
Senior forward
Devin Taylor (pictured) recorded his team-best 11th “double-double” with a career-high 26 points and 11 rebounds to lead The Rock's winning effort.
Taylor was one of only two Rock players to record a double-digit scoring total in Saturday's game. Senior guard
Darious Clark buried four 3-point shots as part of an 18-point scoring effort and handed out three assists to complement Taylor's performance.
Anthony Wells scored a team-high 23 points for IUP (20-5, 16-5), while Josh Wiegand added 16 points and a team-high six rebounds.
The Rock travel to Erie for an important 7:30 p.m. game Wednesday vs. 24th-ranked Gannon University (21-6, 15-6), the No. 3 team in the division standings.
A win at Gannon earns SRU a share of the PSAC-West title, a first-round bye in PSAC Championship and home-court advantage throughout the conference tournament.
A Rock loss, combined with an IUP win Wednesday over Lock Haven (6-18, 4-17), gives the Crimson Hawks their fourth consecutive undisputed PSAC-West title, as well as a first-round bye and the home-court advantage in the tournament.
A Rock loss at Gannon and IUP win over Lock Haven would also necessitate the implementation of the conference's tiebreaker system to determine which team, SRU or Gannon, would receive the other first-round bye in the conference tournament as the PSAC-West's second-place team.
The top two teams in both the Western and Eastern Divisions earn first-round byes and a host role for quarterfinal action. The third- and fourth-place teams in each division host a first-round game and go on the road for a quarterfinal game.
Losses by both The Rock and IUP would leave those teams and Gannon all tied for first-place and require the application of tiebreaker criteria to determine which team receives the division's No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in the PSAC tournament.
More details on the PSAC tournament will be posted early next week.
SRU finished Saturday's game with a 45% (25 of 56) efficiency on its field-goal attempts, with a 39% (7 of 18) showing from 3-point range, and sank a chilly 54% (13 of 24) free throws.
The Rock committed less turnovers, 13-11, but for only the second time in 25 games this winter were outrebounded as IUP had a 36-34 advantage on the backboards.
IUP shot 42% (23 of 55) from the field, 22% (5 of 23) from 3-point range and canned 18 of 23 (78%) free throws.
The Rock scored the first eight points of the game before IUP scored four straight points and were up by 13 points, 35-22, with 1:45 left to play in the first half en route to a 35-26 halftime lead.
A 10-3 Rock run in the first three minutes of the second half extended the hosts' lead to 16 points, 45-29, with 16:45 left to play in the game.
IUP came back with a 12-2 run, though, to trim the difference to six points (47-41) with 12:15 remaining.
The Rock held the Crimson Hawks at bay for the next 10 minutes to hold the aforementioned 68-58 lead with 2:30 left to play.
A 7-0 IUP run made the score 68-65 with one minute remaining before Rock junior guard
Sa'Quan Davis and senior forward
Gerald Brooks each made one of two free throws to account for what proved to be SRU's final points.
Davis' free throw gave SRU a 69-65 lead with 20 seconds left and Brooks' charity toss made it a 70-67 game with 8.5 seconds left.
Senior center
Luiz Santos stepped to the foul line with 3.3 seconds left and The Rock holding a 70-69 edge, but he missed both ends of a double-bonus opportunity to give IUP and Souberbielle the chance to win the game on a buzzer-beating shot.
Notes:
Saturday's win was the third over a nationally-ranked foe in 11 tries in
Kevin Reynolds' five seasons as The Rock's head coach. The Rock upset fourth-ranked Gannon by an 82-72 score Jan. 21, 2009 and knocked off 17th-ranked Mercyhurst by an 81-70 score Feb. 19, 2011. Both of those games were also played in Morrow Field House … Saturday marked the sixth time a Reynolds-coached Rock team met a nationally-ranked IUP team … With the win, The Rock are now 11-2 in home games this winter and 54-15 in home games during Reynolds' five seasons as head coach … Saturday's win snapped a string of eight consecutive losses to IUP by The Rock. The last SRU win over their arch-nemesis prior to Saturday was an 86-69 triumph in Morrow Field House March 3, 2009 in first-round action of the PSAC tournament … Reynolds is now 3-9 all-time against IUP, while Saturday's loss was only the fourth suffered by IUP head coach Joe Lombardi in 16 games vs. SRU.
