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PSAC Stats SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - With just 10 games left in the season, the Slippery Rock University women's basketball team begins the stretch run of its 2014-15 campaign on Wednesday at 6 p.m. when it hosts Clarion University in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division play at Morrow Field House.
LIVE COVERAGEThe Slippery Rock University athletic communication department will provide a live broadcast and live in-game statistics of Wednesday's game at the above links. Updates will also be available on Twitter (
Rock_Athletics).
THE OPENING TIP• Wednesday's game will feature the two newest faces in the PSAC-West in first-year Rock head coach
Bobby McGraw and Clarion's rookie coach Jana Ashley.
• Slippery Rock enters the game at 6-10 overall and 2-10 in the PSAC-West. Clarion is 1-16 on the year overall and 0-12 in league play.
• Both teams are in need of a win as SRU is winless in its last five games while Clarion hasn't claimed a win since Nov. 23, a streak of 13 games.
• In its last game, Slippery Rock was unable to pull off the upset in a 73-48 loss against No. 17 Indiana (Pa.) at Morrow Field House on Jan. 17. Junior guard
Taylor Siggers scored 14 points to lead The Rock. Senior forward
D'Asia Chambers grabbed four rebounds and junior guard
Erica Aiello passed out four assists as well to pace SRU.
• Chambers begins the week with 629 career rebounds, 36 away from passing Pamela Andersen (1992-96 / 664) for fifth place in Slippery Rock history.
SCOUTING THE ROCKOn the year Chambers is Slippery Rock's leader in scoring (16.4 points per game (ppg)), rebounding (10.3 rpg), field goal percentage (.495) and steals per game (1.7). She is on pace to be the first Rock athlete to average a double-double for the year since Stacey Green did so in 2002-03 (11.7 ppg / 10.3 rpg).
Siggers is second for The Rock in scoring with 10.5 ppg while Aiello is The Rock's third leading scorer at 9.1 ppg in addition to being the team's leader in three-pointers made (17) and assists per game (3.3). Senior forward
Danielle Garroutte's 12 blocks are a team-high and tied for a personal career-best.
Through 16 games, SRU is scoring 63.2 ppg while allowing 65.2 ppg.
EMERGING SCORERSiggers has been one of The Rock's most consistent scorers as of late. She is averaging 14.8 ppg and shooting 39.0 percent (32-for-82) from the field over the last seven games. Only Chambers (16.0 ppg) has produced more points for The Rock over the same period of time. In SRU's first nine games, Siggers averaged only 8.8 ppg on 30.8 percent (33-for-107) shooting.
She has also seen a drastic rise in playing time with four 30-plus minute games during the stretch compared to three beforehand.
IMPORTANCE OF A QUICK STARTSlippery Rock is a perfect 6-0 on the season when leading at halftime and winless when trailing at the break. In Rock victories, Slippery Rock holds a +112 (239-127) point differential in the first half, but is -126 (372-246) in the opening period of its 10 losses. SRU averages 39.8 first-half points in wins and 24.6 in its losses.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS• 28.8 - amount of defensive rebounds that Slippery Rock averages per game, the second most in the PSAC behind Shippensburg (30.0).
• 37.0 - SRU's field goal percentage defense, which ranks third in the conference and 59th in the nation.
• 7.7 - how many defensive rebounds per game Chambers averages. The amount is good enough to rank ninth in the country.
• 1.1 - Aiello's assist-turnover ratio, 14th among all PSAC players and a current career-high. Aiello is also on pace finish with a positive assist-turnover margin for the first time in her career.
• 5 - number of points scored by freshman forward
Mallory Heinle against Indiana. She had only scored five points total in the previous seven games combined.
• 5 - Amount of field goals attempted by Chambers against Indiana, her lowest amount against an NCAA Division II team since taking two shots at Cheyney last season, a span of 28 games.
BOUNCE BACK GAMEChambers was limited to just six points and four rebounds last time out against Indiana, but if history is any indication, expect Chambers to have an impressive bounce back performance against Clarion. After only scoring six points and grabbing three rebounds against Mercyhurst earlier in the year, Chambers came back to produce a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds against Seton Hill.
SUPERIOR AT THE FOUL LINESlippery Rock is the only school in the PSAC to have five players, with at least 25 attempts to their credit, make at least 70 percent of their free throws this year. Only Pitt-Johnstown, Lock Haven, East Stroudsburg and Bloomsburg come close to matching The Rock with four shooters at 70 percent each.
Freshman guard
Shannon Jack is shooting a team-high 80.0 percent (20-for-25), junior forward
Megan Hardiman is at 78.0 percent (32-for-41) followed by Siggers (71.7 / 33-for-46), Chambers (71.3 / 57-for-80) and Aiello (70.5 / 31-for-44).
REBOUNDING EDGESlippery Rock averages 41.8 rpg, if SRU were to maintain that average through the end of the season it would be the most by a Rock team since the 1999-00 squad averaged 42.7.
SRU has outrebounded its opponents in 10 of 16 games thus far in 2014-15 and holds a +1.6 rebounding margin for the year. Slippery Rock has not ended the year with a positive rebounding margin since 2006-07 (+1.1).
Helping The Rock win the battle of the boards has been Chambers, Hardiman, Siggers, Heinle and Garroutte.
Chambers is the PSAC's second leading rebounder at 10.6 per game while Hardiman and Siggers chip in 4.6 and 3.9 rpg, respectively. Garroutte and Heinle round out the quintet at 3.3 and 3.1 rpg.
SCOUTING CLARIONSince losing All-PSAC senior forward Hannah Heeter due to injury early in the year, Clarion has been led by junior guard Tania Holmes, who averages team-highs of 14.4 points and 2.1 steals per game. Holmes, who has made 37 three-pointers this year, rarely leaves the floor, playing 36.6 minutes per game.
Delrika Jones-Carey is Clarion's other double figure scorer at 11.0 ppg to go with her team-best 4.8 rpg. Additionally, she ranks 11th in the PSAC in field goal percentage, having made 61 of her 133 attempts (45.7 percent) on the year.
The Golden Eagles are last in the league in scoring (55.1 ppg) and 15th in points allowed (69.6 ppg). Clarion has only scored 60 or more points in a game five times this year, the fewest of any PSAC team.
THE COACHESLeading the resurgence of Slippery Rock women's basketball is first-year head coach
Bobby McGraw. McGraw, a former assistant men's basketball coach at La Roche College and volunteer assistant with the SRU men's basketball team, was named as assistant coach of the SRU women's basketball team Oct. 22, 2013. In May of 2014, McGraw was promoted to acting head coach of the SRU women's program for the 2014-15 season, replacing Tanya Longo. McGraw has needed just a half of season to record what is already tied for the most wins by a Rock team in the last six seasons.
Jana Ashley, an accomplished NCAA Division I assistant coach and former NCAA Division II player at North Alabama was named the women's basketball coach July 1, 2014. Ashley comes to Clarion after spending a year at Iona where she helped the Gales go 26-6 last season, win the regular season MAAC Championship and earn a berth in the Women's NIT Tournament.
CAREER vs. CLARIONThree Slippery Rock players have enjoyed some of their brightest performances in their collegiate careers against Clarion.
Hardiman registered her first career double-double against the Golden Eagles when she went for 17 points and a career-high 11 rebound on Jan. 29, 2014. The 17 points were also just two off of matching her personal-best for points in a game.
Aiello dished out a career-best 12 assists as a freshman when The Rock hosted Clarion on Feb. 6, 2013. Aiello also has an eight-assist outing against Clarion, her fourth best single-game assist total of her career at Slippery Rock.
Chambers blocked an impressive four shots for Slippery Rock against Clarion in the 10th game of her SRU career, a total in which she has not matched since. She also scored 19 points against the Golden Eagles a year ago for what was her 14th most points scored in a game all-time.
ALL-TIME SERIESClarion and Slippery Rock has been an even matchup historically with Clarion holding a narrow 38-34 edge in the all-time series dating back to the 1976-77 season. The Golden Eagles have won four straight games over The Rock including 95-80 and 89-73 victories last season. Slippery Rock's last win against the Golden Eagles came in the season finale of 2011-12 when Jasmine Cooper scored 18 points and Danielle Smith secured 15 rebounds in a 71-63 Rock triumph.
LAST MEETINGClarion ran out to a 17-point lead at halftime and held off Slippery Rock for an 89-73 win on Jan. 29, 2014 at Clarion. For the second consecutive game, Slippery Rock rebounded at halftime and was able to outscore its opponent in the second half, but the deficit at the break proved to be too large to overcome.
Slippery Rock got a pair of double-double efforts from
Jazmyne Frost and Hardiman, led by Frost's big night down low with 16 points and 16 rebounds. Hardiman put together arguably her best performance in a Rock uniform with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
Chambers added another solid scoring night to lead the team with 19 points, while also grabbing six rebounds. Aiello chipped in eight assists to lead the SRU performers.
UP NEXTSlippery Rock concludes the opening half of its 2014-15 PSAC-West schedule when it travels to California (Pa.) on Jan. 24. Tipoff is scheduled for 3 p.m.
