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ERIE, Pa. – The Slippery Rock men's basketball team suffered a 64-51 loss at Gannon Wednesday night in the opening game of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference portion of both teams' schedules.
 
Slippery Rock was optimistic entering Wednesday night's PSAC opener against the Western Division preseason favorite Golden Knights after the two teams just faced the same opposition last weekend. Slippery Rock went 2-0 against Charleston and Glenville State, while Gannon went 0-2 against the same teams at the PSAC-Mountain East crossover on the same court.
 
In those wins, Slippery Rock made up for average shooting on the offensive side of the floor with stellar defense and a massive rebounding advantage. The poor shooting caught up to The Rock Wednesday night and the defensive and rebounding advantages weren't there. Gannon picked up its first win of the season to improve to 1-2 overall and 1-0 in league action, while SRU fell to 2-1 overall and 0-1 in PSAC games.
 
Slippery Rock missed its first nine shots from the field and didn't convert a field goal for the first 8:28 of game clock. Despite those poor numbers to open the game, the defense was strong and The Rock was able to mount a comeback from down nine points early to take the lead twice in in the final six minutes of the first half.
 
Slippery Rock led by three with 1:39 to play before Gannon knocked down a 3-pointer to send the game to halftime tied at 26-26.
 
The second half belonged to the hosts from the opening inbounds play. Gannon built up a game-high 14-point lead, 50-36, with 11:07 to play.
 
Slippery Rock battled back and twice got the deficit to four points, the last time with 5:29 to play and Gannon leading 55-51.
 
The Rock went cold from there, failing to register a single point over the final 5:29 as Gannon pulled away for the 64-51 win.
 
Slippery Rock finished the game shooting 32.6 percent from the field (15-of-46), 36.4 percent from 3-point (6-of-18) and 78.9 percent from the free throw line (15-of-19).
 
Gannon shot 49 percent for the game (25-of-51), which included a 57.7 percent effort in the second half. The Golden Knights were 54.5 percent from 3-point (6-of-11) and 61.5 percent at the free throw line (8-of-13). Gannon finished the game with a 33-28 advantage in total rebounds and a 16-15 edge in turnovers.
 
Slippery Rock was led by Frank Holloway with a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds. Cornelius Brown added 11 points with seven coming from the free throw line. Kelvin Goodwin chipped in nine points and Malcolm Richardson finished with eight points. This week's PSAC West Athlete of the Week, Antonio Butler, was held scoreless and finished 0-for-8 from the field.
 
Gannon was led by Adam Blazek with 20 points and four assists. Girbran Smith and Rich Austin each chipped in 11 points and A'Darius Porter grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.
 
Slippery Rock returns home to the friendly confines of Morrow Field House to open the home portion of its schedule this Saturday with a 7:30 p.m. PSAC game against Pitt-Johnstown.