Traditional Box Score
 
ERIE, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team lost on the road at Mercyhurst University, 80-68, Saturday afternoon in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division play at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center.
 
The loss drops Slippery Rock's record to 6-8 overall and to 2-8 in PSAC-West play. Mercyhurst improves to 5-11 overall and to 3-8 in conference competition with the win.
 
Junior guard Erica Aiello, who was held scoreless for the first time since the third game of her freshman season earlier in the week against Bloomsburg, bounced back to score a team-high 17 points to go with four rebounds and one steal against the Lakers. Aiello scored three points in the first half before going 3-for-5 from the field and 7-for-8 from the foul line to score 14 second-half points.
 
Also having a strong second half was junior guard Taylor Siggers, who scored all 12 of her points Saturday in the final 20 minutes of play. For the day, Siggers shot 6-for-10 from the field in what was her second best shooting performance of the season. She also had two steals on defense.
 
Also scoring in double figures was freshman guard Shannon Jack, who played a season-high 21 minutes and buried three three-pointers on the way to an 11-point output.
 
Others aiding in The Rock's effort on Saturday was junior forward Megan Hardiman and sophomore guard Audrey Stapleton. Hardiman tallied a team-best eight rebounds while Stapleton came off the bench to score eight points and grab four rebounds. Since scoring 19 points in her first 11 games of the season, Stapleton has come on to score 25 over the last three contests.
 
Junior guard Breanna Gross chipped in five points and four rebounds as well.
 
Mercyhurst scored the game's opening six points before the duo of Jack and Stapleton came off the bench to provide SRU with five quick points off of a pair of Stapleton free throws and a three-pointer by Jack to cut the Lakers' lead to one point through the opening three minutes.
 
Mercyhurst proceeded to rip off 11 consecutive points over the following five minutes to give the Lakers a decisive 17-5 advantage over The Rock. Mercyhurst maintained its lead through the rest of the period and took a 34-23 lead into halftime.

Slippery Rock stormed out on a 14-8 run to begin the second half to cut the Mercyhurst advantage down to five points at 42-37 with 14:42 left to play.
 
However, Mercyhurst once again countered with a 19-9 spurt of its own to push its lead back out to 15 points at the midway point of the second half. Slippery Rock continued to battle and was able to cut the Lakers' lead down to eight points with three minutes to go, but could get no closer as Mercyhurst made eight of its final 14 free throw attempts in the game's final minutes to hold on for the victory.
 
After shooting just 28 percent (7-for-25) in the first half, Slippery Rock came out and hit 60 percent (15-for-25) of its field goal attempts in the second half to finish at 44 percent for the game, its fifth highest percentage of the year. SRU also only committed 14 turnovers, down from 26 against Bloomsburg earlier in the week. Slippery Rock continued to take advantage of its opponent's miscues by going 19-for-25 from the free throw line (76.0 percent) and turning 12 Mercyhurst turnovers into nine points.
 
Mercyhurst had the second best shooting day of any Rock opponent this season at 45.6 percent (26-for-57). The Lakers were led by Natalie Piaggesi, recorded a double-double of 22 points and 16 rebounds.
 
Slippery Rock will look to snap its three-game losing streak with a victory at Seton Hill on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.