Traditional Box Score SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team parlayed an impressive second-half performance in which it shot 50 percent from the field into a 68-57 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference victory against Clarion University Wednesday night at Morrow Field House.
The victory improves The Rock's record to 7-10 overall on the season and to 3-10 in PSAC-West play. The seven wins are the most in a season for the program since the 2008-09 team won 11 games. Clarion dropped to 1-17 overall and to 0-13 in league play with the loss.
For the game, Slippery Rock shot 40.8 percent (20-for-49) from the field while limiting Clarion to a 19-for-54 (35.2 percent) night shooting. The Rock's defense also forced Clarion into 18 turnovers. The Golden Eagles started out hot in the first half, shooting 46.2 percent, before SRU clamped down in the second period and held CU to just seven made field goals.
Slippery Rock was paced by senior forward
D'Asia Chambers, who returned to form with a dominant 21-point, 10-rebound, four-assist, three-steal effort. Chambers went 7-for-15 from the field and 7-for-8 from the foul line. The double-double was her league-leading 10
th of the season.
Junior forward
Megan Hardiman returned to the starting lineup and produced a season-best 14 points. She connected on two three-pointers in a 4-for-7 night shooting in addition to going a perfect 4-for-4 at the charity stripe.
Other top Rock performers in the victory included junior guard
Erica Aiello, senior forward
Danielle Garroutte and sophomore guard
Audrey Stapleton. Garroutte went for five points, six rebounds and two blocks while Aiello scored nine points and passed out five assists. Stapleton came off the bench to give SRU nine points.
Clarion grabbed a 7-2 lead through the opening three minutes before a 13-8 SRU run evened the contest at 15-15 midway through the period. Both teams traded buckets over the remainder of the half with Clarion coming away with a narrow 31-29 lead at the break.
The second half belonged to Slippery Rock as a smothering defensive effort limited Clarion to a 25.0 field goal percentage and eight turnovers. Conversely, Slippery Rock connected on 12-of-24 shots and committed just six miscues, one of which was a shot clock violation that occurred with two seconds left in the contest.
Chambers set the tone for the final 20 minutes by landing five of her first six shots to put Slippery Rock ahead 39-37 five minutes into the half. Following Chambers' offensive explosion, SRU would trail for just 14 seconds for the remainder of the game.
The Green and White kept its lead through the rest of the contest thanks to a 7-0 run that put Slippery Rock up 56-46 with six minutes to play. Clarion would get no closer than seven points down the stretch as SRU did not allow a Golden Eagle field goal in the final 3:36 of regulation on the way to a 68-57 win.
Slippery Rock held advantages over Clarion in steals (11-7), points in the paint (24-14), bench points (14-13) and points off turnovers (7-6).
Tania Holmes scored 20 points and passed out six assists for the Golden Eagles in the loss.
Slippery Rock closes out the opening round of PSAC-West play Saturday afternoon at California (Pa.). Tipoff is set for 3 p.m.
