Traditional Box Score CALIFORNIA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team stayed close with No. 24 California (Pa.) for the duration of Saturday's game, but couldn't quite pull off the upset in a 74-63 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division loss at the Convocation Center.
Slippery Rock (7-11, 3-11 PSAC-West) hung with the nationally ranked Vulcans (15-3, 12-2) for all 40 minutes, but a slow start combined with a second-half shooting percentage of 32.8 percent (12-for-37) and California making eight three-pointers, its second highest total of the year, proved too much to overcome.
SRU committed 19 turnovers, the third fewest of any California opponent this season. The Rock also caused 17 California miscues to negate the Vulcans' PSAC-leading turnover margin. Slippery Rock also won the rebounding battle (39-31) and shot a season-high 40 percent (4-for-10) from three-point range.
Senior forward
D'Asia Chambers produced a game-high 21 points on 9-for-14 shooting from the field and a 2-for-3 day from the foul line. She is now tied for 11
th place at SRU in career points with 1,163. Saturday was her second 21-point performance in as many games. Chambers also pulled in eight rebounds and made two steals in what was another solid outing.
Helping in the paint was junior forward
Breanna Gross, who had her best rebounding performance in a Rock uniform with eight rebounds. Six of her rebounds came on the offensive glass.
Junior guard
Taylor Siggers was The Rock's second leading scorer with nine points. Junior guard
Erica Aiello and sophomore guard
Audrey Stapleton chipped in eight points each. Siggers and Stapleton both had four rebounds as well while Aiello picked up three steals.
Thanks in part to three early three-pointers, California took a 13-6 lead into the first media timeout. SRU did a great job penetrating the Vulcan defense and had several open looks in the paint, but could not convert the majority of its attempts. Chambers accounted for all six of The Rock's points early on.
The Vulcans went on to extend its lead out to 14 points at 32-18 before Slippery Rock stormed back by rattling off a 15-3 run to cut California's lead down to two points at halftime. The run, which spanned the final 5:24 of the first half, was sparked by a Rock defensive effort that forced California into xix turnovers and limited the Vulcans to just one successful field goal in four attempts. Chambers and Aiello combined for 11 of The Rock's 15 points during the spurt.
Slippery Rock and California traded baskets to start the second half with SRU getting to as close as one point after Aiello drained a high-arching three-pointer to make it a 41-40 contest with 16:32 to play in regulation.
However, the Vulcans countered with a 9-0 run that The Rock could not recover from. SRU managed to trim the lead back down to as little as four points midway through the period, but California was always able to provide an answer any time SRU seemed poised to make a run to hang on for the 74-63 win.
The game ended with SRU shooting 39.1 percent (25-for-64) from the field and California making 50 percent (28-for-55) of its attempts. For the game, Slippery Rock held advantages in points off turnovers (17-12), points in the paint (30-20), second chance points (16-7) and bench points (19-9).
Emma Mahady and Kaitlynn Fratz both scored 20 points for California. Mahady also grabbed 10 rebounds for the double-double.
Slippery Rock will begin the second round of its PSAC-West schedule when it hosts Gannon University on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
