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INDIANA, Pa. – Led by senior forward
Devin Taylor's team-leading 13th “double-double”of the season, Slippery Rock University earned the right to play for the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference men's basketball championship by knocking off 19th-ranked and defending PSAC champion East Stroudsburg University by a 68-59 score Friday night in semifinal action at the Kovalchick Complex on the campus of Indiana U. of Pa.
The Rock, who earned their second title-game berth in the last three seasons, go in search of their first conference championship in 50 years at 7 p.m. Saturday. Their opponent will be the winner of Friday's second semifinal, either 13th-ranked IUP or West Chester University.
Friday's win, which very well may have assured SRU of its second trip to NCAA regional competition in the last three seasons, was the third consecutive recorded by the Green and White and the seventh in the last eight outings for The Rock, who can match the school record for single-season wins with a victory Saturday night.
Taylor recorded game-high totals with 22 points and 14 rebounds in Friday's win, while senior forward
Gerald Brooks added 15 points and eight rebounds in a substitute role.
Duane Johnson scored a team-high 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for East Stroudsburg (22-6). Whis Grant added 13 points and Terrance King contributed 11 points for the Warriors.
The Rock's road to victory was paved by a defensive effort that held the conference's top scoring offense 20 points under its per-game average and forced the Warriors into a 26% (15 of 57) shooting effort from the floor. ESU was 3-of-19 (16%) from 3-point range and stayed in the game with a 26-of-37 (70%) showing from the foul line.
The shut-down performance wasn't totally unexpected, though, since The Rock entered the game ranked second in the nation in field goal defense (36.9%).
Indicative of the job The Rock defense did Friday night bottling up ESU's attack was the fact Grant, who scored 28 points against SRU in the teams' regular-season meeting Jan. 11 and was the PSAC-Eastern Division “Player of the Year” with a 17.5 points per game average, was held scoreless in the opening half of action and scored nine of his 13 points in the second half from the foul line.
Offensively, The Rock shot 41% (24 of 58) from the field, hit two of 14 (14%) shots from 3-point range and sank 18 of 25 (72%) free throws.
The NCAA all-divisions national leader in team rebounding margin with a +12.5 mark, SRU outrebounded East Stroudsburg by a 46-39 margin, but the Green and White were on the high end of a 20-17 turnover comparison.
The Rock never trailed in the game. They opened the action with a 12-2 run in the first four and a half minutes, then weathered an ESU rally midway through the first half that trimmed the lead to four points before they closed out the first half with a 12-2 run to take a 35-20 lead into the intermission.
SRU hit 42% (13 of 31) of its shots from the floor, one of nine shots from 3-point range and made eight f 13 (62%) free throws in the opening half. The Rock also had a 29-21 rebounding advantage at halftime.
ESU shot a frigid 18% (6 of 34) from the floor, hit one of 10 shots from long range and sank seven of 10 free throws in the first half of action.
Taylor had 12 points and seven rebounds at the intermission, while Brooks (6 rebounds) and junior swingman
Tabari Perry each added eight points. Johnson led ESU with nine first-half points, while King added eight.
The Rock extended their lead to 19 points, 48-29, at the 11-minute mark in the second half before East Stroudsburg turned up its trademark defensive intensity and clawed its way back.
The Warriors trailed by only six points, 58-52, with 2:30 left to play, only to see their comeback effort snuffed out by a clutch, old-fashioned 3-point play by Brooks that gave SRU a 61-52 lead with 1:45 left.
East Stroudsburg never got closer than seven points in the final 90 seconds of action.
Notes:
The Rock won their only PSAC men's basketball championship in 1963, when a Hank Baierl-coached squad nipped Mansfield, 74-73, in the title game … The school record for single-season wins is currently shared by the 1972-73 team coached by Mel Hankinson and the 1989-90 and 1990-91 teams coached by Bob Barlett ... East Stroudsburg was the No. 6 team in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional ranking released last Wednesday, while IUP was fourth and West Chester ninth. The top eight teams in the final ranking Sunday will earn berths in the regional competition, which begins next weekend.
