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ERIE, Pa. – In the end, Slippery Rock University's bid for a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division men's basketball co-championship and first-round bye in the upcoming conference tournament went up in flames Wednesday night.

Hosting Gannon University shot a red-hot 60% from the field in the first 30 minutes of action and rode the effort to a 75-63 win over The Rock in the regular-season finale for both teams.

The loss snapped a four-game win streak for The Rock (19-7 overall, 16-6 PSAC) and dropped the Green and White into a tie with Gannon (22-6, 16-6) for second place in the final PSAC-Western Division standings.

The Rock, who are making their third consecutive appearance in the tournament, also lost the tiebreaker vs. Gannon and, as a result, will be the division's No. 3 seed in the conference tournament.

The Green and White entertain sixth-place California (Pa.) in a 7 p.m. first-round game Saturday in Morrow Field House.

Gannon, which improved its season record to 22-6 overall, 16-6 in conference action, earned a first-round bye as the division's No. 2 seed and will host the winner of The Rock-California game in a 7:30 p.m. quarterfinal game March 5.

Indiana, Pa. (21-5, 17-5 PSAC) won the division championship and earned the other first-round bye awarded to a Western Division team, as well as the home-court advantage throughout the single-elimination tournament.

Gannon finished the game with a 53% (24 of 45) efficiency on its action shots with a 5-of-9 (56%) showing from 3-point range and made 22 of 34 (65%) free throws.

The Rock shot 36% (20 of 56) from the field, hit 3 of 17 (18%) from 3-point range and canned 20 of 27 (74%) free throws.

SRU had a 36-30 rebounding advantage, but also had more turnovers by a 15-11 margin. Gannon made the most of those extra chances as they outscored The Rock by a 16-6 margin in points off turnovers.

Adam Blazek had game-high totals of 25 points and nine rebounds for Gannon, while Darrell Blanton added 16 points and Robert Wilson scored 10 points.

Senior forward Gerald Brooks scored a team-high 16 points for SRU. Senior guard Darious Clark added 12 points and senior forward Devin Taylor chipped in 10 points and seven rebounds.

Gannon hit a scorching 60% (15 of 25) of their field-goal attempts, including a 4-of-5 showing from 3-point range, and sank six of eight free throws in the first half en route to a 16-point, 40-24, lead at the intermission and cruised home with the win.

The Rock, meanwhile, shot 38.5% (10 of 26) from the field, 1 of 5 from 3-point range and made only three of eight free throws in the opening 20 minutes.

Gannon also performed well on the backboards as it battled SRU, the national leader in rebounding margin, to a 15-15 rebounding draw in the first half.

The Rock held a 6-2 lead early in the game, only to see Gannon go on a 10-0 run and slowly pull away from there for the 16-point halftime advantage.

The Golden Knights held a 24-point, 60-36, lead with 11 minutes left to play in the game but The Rock refused to go quietly as they trimmed the margin to 10 points on two occasions in the final minute.

Notes:

SRU was ninth in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional ranking released Wednesday afternoon. The top eight teams at the end of the season earn berths in the national tournament … Saturday's game will be the first home PSAC tournament contest for SRU since The Rock beat Indiana (Pa.) 86-69 in an opening-round game March 3, 2009. The Rock have played three conference tournament games on opponents' home courts and two neutral-site games since then.