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JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team dropped its second straight Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division game Saturday with a 77-59 road loss at Pitt-Johnstown.
 
The Mountain Cats closed the first half on a 10-2 run to lead 34-24 at the break and then capped a 17-4 run early in the second half to push the advantage out to 41-26 with 17:26 to play. The Rock would get no closer than 13 points the rest of the way.
 
Slippery Rock drops to 15-7 overall and 10-6 in PSAC action with the loss. Pitt-Johnstown improves to 10-10 overall and 7-9 in league games.  The Rock will stay fourth in the division standings after all games are completed Saturday, while Pitt-Johnstown will either move into a tie for sixth or remain in seventh place.
 
The cold shooting woes that have plagued The Rock for most of the year returned Saturday on the road. After shooting 53 percent in a loss to division leading Gannon earlier in the week, Slippery Rock dropped back to a 34.9 percent effort Saturday, connecting on 22-of-63 shots from the field. Included in that was the worst 3-point shooting effort of the season at just 7.7 percent (1-of-13). A 93.3 percent showing from the free throw line (14-of-15) was essentially canceled out as the hosts went to the line nearly twice as many times in the game.
 
Pitt Johnstown shot 44.2 percent from the field (23-of-52), 57.1 percent from 3-point (8-of-14) and 82.1 percent from the free throw line (23-of-28).
 
Slippery Rock posted a 37-34 rebounding advantage and failed to reach 40 total rebounds for the third straight game and just the fifth time all year. The Rock grabbed 14 offensive rebounds, but turned those into only eight second chance points.
 
Antonio Butler was the only Rock player to reach double figures with 15 points and five rebounds. It was his 13th straight game in double figures. Kelvin Goodwin added nine points and five assists and Cornelius Brown chipped in eight points.
 
All five Pitt-Johnstown starters reached double figures, led by a game-high 21 points from A.J. Leahey, who also grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. Matt Palo scored 14 points, Ian Vescovi added 13, Rich Audu scored 11 and Nate Snodgrass chipped in 10 points.
 
Things were close for most of the first half as the Mountain Cats led by just two, 24-22 with 4:59 to play before halftime. From there, it was all Pitt-Johnstown as the hosts closed the half on a 10-2 run and never looked back.
 
Slippery Rock will have little time to recover from its back-to-back losses, as The Rock will play host to Mercyhurst Wednesday night at 8 p.m. in the annual White Out game.
 
Official White Out t-shirts are available for just $5 at the SGA Bookstore throughout the week and will also be available in the lobby of the field house Wednesday night.