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GREENSBURG, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team battled back from an 18-point second half deficit to force overtime, but eventually dropped its second straight Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division game with an 86-82 loss in double overtime at Seton Hill Wednesday night.
 
As has been the case in all five of Slippery Rock's losses this year, The Rock suffered from another poor night shooting the ball. Despite shooting just 36.6 percent from the field for the game, The Rock had a chance to win the game at the free throw line in regulation and the first overtime, but crucial free throw misses kept the game going.
 
Seton Hill was able to capitalize in the second overtime on the strength of David Windsor, who scored 16 of his 33 points in the overtime periods. The difference became the free throw line in the extra periods, where Seton Hill was 7-of-10 and Slippery Rock was 3-of-6, providing the four-point difference.
 
The loss is the second in a row for SRU and drops The Rock to 12-5 overall and 7-4 in PSAC action. Seton Hill improves to 5-10 overall and 4-7 in PSAC games. Wednesday night's game was the fourth straight meeting between the two teams that was settled by four points or less. Slippery Rock won all three meetings last year, including a 68-65 victory in the opening round of the PSAC playoffs.
 
The Rock was kept in the game in the second half by the career-high performance of Kelvin Goodwin, who finished with 33 points and five made 3-pointers. Antonio Butler added a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds. Jamal Gatali scored nine points and pulled down 13 rebounds and Cornelius Brown added eight points and 10 boards.
 
Slippery Rock finished the game with a 49-42 advantage in total rebounds and surprisingly finished with more offensive boards than defensive. The Rock grabbed 25 offensive rebounds, but converted those into just 21 second chance points.
 
The Green and White took 18 more field goal attempts in the game than Seton Hill, finishing 30-of-82 for the 36.6 percent efficiency. Included in that was a 33.3 percent effort from 3-point (9-of-27). Slippery Rock finished the game 13-of-19 from the free throw line (68.4 percent) after starting the game 6-of-6.
 
Seton Hill finished the game with better shooting percentages in all three areas, knocking down 52.3 percent of its shots from the field (34-of-65), 36.4 percent from 3-point (4-of-11) and 70 percent from the free throw line (14-of-20).
 
Windsor matched Goodwin for game-high honors with 33 points after scoring all eight of his team's points in the first overtime and finishing with 16 points after regulation. Spencer Casson added a double-double with 13 points, 13 rebounds and seven blocks and Noah Davis scored 18 points for the hosts.
 
Seton Hill jumped out to 34-28 halftime lead after Slippery Rock shot just 30 percent in the opening period. The Griffins kept on the gas in the early stages of the second half and opened up an 18-point advantage, 50-32 with 14:46 to play.
 
From there, Slippery Rock stormed back into the game with a 25-6 run to take a 57-56 lead with 6:06 to play.
 
The teams traded buckets down the stretch until Seton Hill led by one, 65-64 with 1:05 to play. Slippery Rock misfired on two 3-point attempts, but Seton Hill was unable to convert on its end and fouled Jamal Gatali with 2.8 seconds left.
 
Gatali missed the first shot, but made the second to tie the game at 65-65. Seton Hill missed a long range desperation shot at the buzzer to force overtime.
 
Neither team could get much separation in the first extra period. Slippery Rock led most of the way before Windsor knocked down a jumper to put Seton Hill up 73-72 with 1:18 to play. Both teams missed chances from there and Cornelius Brown was fouled with 12 seconds left.
 
Again, The Rock went 1-of-2 from the free throw line with a chance to win the game, this time tying it at 73-73 to force a second overtime.
 
In the second extra session, The Rock's luck ran out. Goodwin knocked down a 3-pointer to give Slippery Rock a 76-74 lead with 4:03 to play, but Seton Hill answered with a 6-0 run to take an 80-76 lead with 1:57 left.
 
The Rock could never recover from that margin as Seton Hill knocked down crucial free throws to seal the 86-82 win.
 
Slippery Rock will have little time to recover from dropping its second straight game as the hottest team in the PSAC and archrival Indiana (Pa.) is set to visit Morrow Field House Saturday night for a 7:30 p.m. tip. The Crimson Hawks have won eight consecutive games, while no other team in the PSAC has a current win streak of better than three games.