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ERIE, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball remained unbeaten in non-conference play with a convincing 80-70 win over defending Great Midwest Athletic Conference champion Alderson Broaddus Friday night in the opening game of the Gary Miller Classic at Gannon University's Hammermill Center.
 
Slippery Rock used a 15-0 run midway through the opening period and led by double figures for most of the final 30 minutes of play.
 
The win gives The Rock an impressive non-conference 3-0 record so far this year with wins over defending Mountain East Conference champion Charleston, NCAA tournament qualifying Glenville State and now defending GMAC champion Alderson Broaddus, which went 24-5 last winter.
 
Slippery Rock improves to 4-1 overall with the lone loss coming to Gannon on the same floor as Friday night's game. Alderson Broaddus drops to 3-2 overall on the season. The Rock are back in action Saturday at 5:30 p.m. as they close out competition in the Gary Miller Classic against LeMoyne. Alderson Broaddus will play hosting Gannon at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
 
The two teams traded early buckets Friday night with the Battlers jumping out to a 10-9 lead four minutes into the game. Slippery Rock gained the lead shortly after and led 18-15 with 11:44 to play in the opening half.
 
From there, Alderson Broaddus fell victim to the stout defense and hot shooting of The Rock as Slippery Rock put together a 15-0 run to open up a 33-15 lead with 4:26 to play in the period. The Battlers would never recover from that deficit, trailing 42-25 at halftime and getting no closer than nine points at any time in the second half.
 
Slippery Rock got its best shooting performance of the season from the field and from the free throw line and combined that with another big advantage in rebounding to run away with the win. The Rock shot 47.5 percent from the field (29-of-61), 38.5 percent from beyond 3-point (5-of-13) and 89.5 percent at the free throw line (17-of-19). Slippery Rock also grabbed 42 total rebounds and finished +16 in rebounding margin.
 
The Rock were led by career-high efforts from returning starters Cornelius Brown and Antonio Butler, who each finished with a game-high 23 points. Brown also recorded nine rebounds and shot 90 percent from the field (9-of-10) in his best career outing. Butler added five rebounds, three assists and three steals. He also knocked down a career-high eight field goals, going 8-of-12 from the floor.
 
Jamal Gatali added 11 points, Kelvin Goodwin chipped in nine points and Chaquille Pratt scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds to cap the top performers for Slippery Rock.
 
Alderson Broaddus shot 40 percent from the field (24-of-60), 33.3 percent from 3-point (8-of-24) and 82.4 percent at the free throw line (14-of-17). Both teams took care of the ball, combining for just 13 turnovers in the game. Slippery Rock committed seven turnovers, while the Battlers gave it up six times.
 
Thylas Perkins led Alderson Broaddus with 19 points. Ali Bilal added 16 points and Malcolm Tatum scored 13 points.
 
Friday's meeting was just the second time the two teams had ever met, with the only other meeting coming early in the 2010-11 season, a win for Alderson Broaddus on a neutral floor at Shepherd.
 
Slippery Rock continues non-conference play and will look to improve to 5-1 Saturday with a win over LeMoyne. The Dolphins qualified for the NCAA playoffs last year, making this the fourth team in six games Slippery Rock will play that was an NCAA Division II tournament team last winter.