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WEST LIBERTY, W. Va. – Slippery Rock University's bid for an NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional championship ended Sunday evening when 10th-ranked Indiana U. of Pa. handed The Rock a 53-50 loss at West Liberty University in second-round action of the national tournament.

The loss was SRU's third in four meetings with IUP, a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division rival of The Rock, and gave this winter's Green and White squad a final 23-9 win-loss record.

IUP (26-5) earned the right to play either top-ranked West Liberty (31-1) or Fairmont State (23-8) in Tuesday's regional final game.

The Rock trailed throughout Sunday's game, with the exception of a three-minute period midway through the final half of action.

As was the case in the previous two losses to IUP this winter, The Rock ultimately paid the price for a frigid first-half shooting effort. SRU made only five of 26 (19%) shots from the field in the opening 20 minutes of action and, as result, trailed by a 24-19 score at the intermission.

The Rock narrowed the margin to one point on three occasions early in the second half before finally catching and moving ahead of the Crimson Hawks by a 32-21 score with 14:30 left to play on a pair of free throws by senior guard Darious Clark.

A jump shot by senior forward Devin Taylor two minutes later gave The Rock its largest, and ultimately final, lead of the game at 34-31 with 12:30 left to play.

IUP scored the next five points to regain the lead at 36-34 with 10:30 remaining before SRU recovered to knot the count at 38-38 on a jump shot by senior forward Gerald Brooks with 7:15 left.

A 7-0 IUP run in the next five minutes of the defense-dominated game gave the Crimson Hawks a 45-38 lead with 2:30 left to play.

Two minutes later, with only 30 seconds left to play, IUP had a 52-45.

Refusing to go down without a fight, The Rock scored five unanswered points on a jump shot by junior guard Sa'Quan Davis and a 3-pointer by Taylor that made it a 52-50 game with 15 seconds left. That proved to be the end of the rally, though, as IUP held on for the win.

The Rock's shooting touch warmed up considerably in the second half as they hit 39% (11 of 28) from the field to finish the game with a 30% (16 of 54) efficiency that included a 3-of-15 (20%) reading from 3-point range.

SRU sank 15 of 24 (63%) free throws in the game, but were 2-of-6 in the final 10 minutes of action with two of the misses coming on the front end of one-and-one opportunities.

Clark led The Rock in scoring with 12 points and grabbed five rebounds, while Brooks had 11 points and 10 rebounds for his eighth “double-double” of the season.

Taylor had nine points and five rebounds one night after going for 27 points and 15 rebounds in an opening-round win over No. 16 Winston-Salem State. Junior swingman Tabari Perry snatched a team-high eight rebounds and blocked three shots for SRU.

IUP finished the game with a 34% (18 of 53) efficiency on its field-goal attempts, made seven of 16 (44%) shots from 3-point range and sank 10 of 18 (56%) free throws.

Marcel Souberbielle led the Crimson Hawks' attack with 15 points and 13 rebounds, while Anthony Wells scored 14 points and Scooter Renkin added 11 points and six rebounds.

The Rock, who began the weekend ranked second in the nation in rebounding margin, won the backboard battle Sunday by a 44-40 margin. SRU was on the high side of an 11-10 turnover comparison.

Notes:

Sunday's game rang down the curtain on the collegiate careers of Brooks, Clark, Taylor, guards John Bayardelle and Aubin Reeves and center Luiz Santos. That octet led the 2012-13 Rock to a school-record-tying 23 victories this winter, along with second-place finishes in both the PSAC-West regular-season and PSAC tournament competitions and the first NCAA opening-round win since 1978 … Taylor finished his three-year Rock career with 1,141 points and 750 rebounds, which rank as the 12th and 11th best marks, respectively, in Rock men's basketball history. Behind his lead, The Rock recorded a 59-29 cumulative record the past three seasons … The Rock own a 97-50 win-loss record, two NCAA tournament berths, four PSAC tournament berths, three conference semifinal appearances and two PSAC runner-up finishes after five seasons under head coach Kevin Reynolds … Sunday's game was the school-record-tying 32nd of the season … The Rock, who began the weekend averaging 72.0 points per game, had their three worst scoring nights of the season against IUP with 49, 46 and 50 points in the three losses to the Crimson Hawks.