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SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - After three consecutive road games, the Slippery Rock University women's basketball team returns home to Morrow Field House for its sixth and final Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference crossover contest of the season on Wednesday night when it hosts Bloomsburg University at 5:30 p.m.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
The Slippery Rock University athletic communication department will provide live in-game statistics of Wednesday's game at the above link. Live updates will also be posted throughout the game on Twitter (@Rock_Athletics).
 
THE OPENING TIP
• Slippery Rock is coming out of a weekend in which it split a pair of crossover games with a 75-65 win at Mansfield on Jan. 3 and a 68-59 loss at Lock Haven the following day.
 
• At 6-6 overall, Slippery Rock has already matched its highest win total in the last five years. SRU needs five more victories in 2014-15 to tie the 2008-09 squad for the most wins by a Rock team in the previous nine seasons.
 
• Slippery Rock is currently slotted sixth in the PSAC-West standings with a league record of 2-6. The top six teams in each division at the end of the season qualify for the postseason tournament.
 
• Bloomsburg comes to Morrow Field House ranked 17th in the nation in the latest Women's Basketball Coaches Association's top-25 poll. The Huskies are 9-2 overall and in first place in the PSAC-East standings with a conference mark of 7-1.
 
• Bloomsburg will be the second nationally-ranked team that The Rock has played this year. Earlier in the season Slippery Rock played at Gannon, which was ranked 13^th in the country at the time.
 
DEFENSE AMONG BEST IN NCAA DIVISION II
Through 12 games, Slippery Rock is ranked 19th in the country in field goal percentage defense at .348. Slippery Rock has held opponents to a .360 field goal percentage or less seven times this season. The defensive success is a remarkable improvement from a team that held opponents to the same percentage just five times a season ago.
 
The Rock also ranks in the top third of NCAA Division II in defensive rebounds per game (35th / 29.6), blocks per game (52nd / 4.0), steals per game (65th / 9.0) and points allowed per game (85th / 61.8).

IMPORTANCE OF A QUICK START
Slippery Rock is a perfect 6-0 on the season when leading at halftime and winless when trailing at the break. For the year, Slippery Rock has outscored its opponents 391-352 in the first period of contests. In Rock victories, SRU holds a 239-127 lead at the half, but trails 225-152 through the opening 20 minutes in its losses.
 
REBOUNDING EDGE
Slippery Rock averages 43.1 rebounds per game (rpg), which is the fifth most in the PSAC and, if it were to remain at that average through the end of the season, would be the most by a Rock team since the 1998-99 squad averaged 44.8.
 
SRU has outrebounded its opponents in eight of 12 games thus far in 2014-15 and holds a +2.5 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 the trio of senior forward D'Asia Chambers, junior forward Megan Hardiman and junior guard Taylor Siggers.
 
Chambers is the PSAC's leading rebounder at 11.0 per game while Hardiman and Siggers contribute 4.8 and 4.5 rpg, respectively. Siggers has grabbed seven rebounds in four of The Rock's last six games while Hardiman is coming off of a season-high nine-rebound effort at Lock Haven.
 
ONE OF A KIND
Chambers is the only player in the PSAC to rank in the top 12 in rebounding (first / 11.0), scoring (third / 18.1), field goal percentage (fourth / .500), steals (11th / 2.0) and blocks (12th / 0.8).
 
Chambers, who leads the PSAC with seven double-doubles this season, has 597 career rebounds and needs four more against the Huskies to move into sole possession of sixth place in The Rock's record book.
 
Additionally, a 25-point performance against Bloomsburg would vault Chambers up to 12th place in Rock history for points in a career. Chambers begins the week with 1,078 points.
 
ROCK LEADERS
Chambers is The Rock's leader in scoring, field goal percentage, rebounding, steals and blocked shots.
 
In addition to averaging 10.2 points and 1.8 steals a contest while shooting .458 from the field, junior guard Erica Aiello also leads SRU in three-pointers made (14), assists per game (3.5) and minutes played per game (28.3).
 
Siggers is SRU's third leading scorer at 10.0 ppg to go with 1.7 spg defensively.
 
Senior forward Danielle Garroutte has nine blocks and freshman guard Shannon Jack is SRU's top free throw shooter at .810 (17-for-21).
 
ADVANTAGE AT THE LINE
Slippery Rock is the only school in the PSAC to have five players, with at least 20 attempts to their credit, make at least 70 percent of their free throws this year.
 
Jack is shooting 81.0 percent (17-for-21), Siggers is at 75.0 percent (30-for-40) followed by Chambers (73.1 / 49-for-67), Hardiman (71.4 / 20-for-28) and Aiello (70.6 / 24-for-34).
 
Only Pitt-Johsntown, Lock Haven and East Stroudsburg come close to matching The Rock with four shooters at 70 percent each.
 
FIRST HALF STOPPERS
The Slippery Rock defense has held opponents to 29.3 ppg in the first half of games this season. Only two other teams in the PSAC-West hold its opposition to fewer points in California and Edinboro at 28.8 and 27.5 ppg.
 
SRU is seventh in the entire conference with PSAC-East schools Millersville (28.4), Shippensburg (28.5), Lock Haven (28.9) and Wednesday's opponent Bloomsburg (29.2) also ranking ahead of The Rock.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
7 & 7 - points and rebounds Hardiman is averaging in her two starts this season. She had her best game of the season with eight points and nine rebounds Jan. 4 at Lock Haven.
 
4 - number of three-pointers made by Aiello in The Rock's two games played last weekend. She had made just four three-pointers in her previous seven games before that. Aiello also matched her season high of five assists at Lock Haven.
 
5.8 – Siggers' rebounds per game total over the last six games. Up from 3.2 over the first six games of the year.
 
17-fro-19 - what Chambers and Aiello combine to shoot from the foul line in the final three minutes of games.
 
6-3 - SRU's record when outrebounding opponents.

BENCH SPARK
Sophomore guard Audrey Stapleton, a transfer from East Stroudsburg, had three steals in seven minutes off the bench in Slippery Rock's win at Mansfield. She followed that up by posting season-highs of nine points and four rebounds in 18 minutes against Lock Haven.
 
SCOUTING BLOOMSBURG
The Huskies are one of the top teams in the PSAC at disrupting the opposition  as evidenced by their 22.4 turnovers forced per game, the second most of any school in the conference. Bloomsburg ranks eighth in the league in scoring (67.9) and fourth in points allowed (60.3).
 
Marla Simmons is Bloomsburg's leading scorer at 12.5 ppg. In addition to scoring 10.6 ppg, Sadowski is second in the PSAC with 25 blocks and also averages a team-best 7.7 rpg.
 
Camden Boehner is the reigning PSAC-East Freshman of the Week after she tied a career-high with 13 points while playing a key role in the Huskies' 68-56 victory over No. 23 California. She also registered eight points and handed out three assists in Saturday's 71-63 triumph over Seton Hill.
 
THE COACHES
Leading 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.
 
Bill Cleary will begin his seventh season as head coach of the Bloomsburg University women's basketball team in 2014-15. In his six seasons as head coach, Cleary has guided the Huskies to an overall record of 125-50 (.714), including 98-23 (.810) over the past four seasons as well as three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, the longest run for the school since making four straight appearances from 1989-92. The 98 wins tie the winningest four-year period in Bloomsburg women's basketball history. Prior to Bloomsburg, Cleary spent five seasons at Wilmington University.
 
ALL TIME SERIES
The Slippery Rock - Bloomsburg series is tied 15-15 all-time. The Huskies have won three straight games against The Rock, including an 84-46 victory in their last meeting on Dec. 1, 2012. Chambers had seven points and three rebounds while Hardiman and Garroutte combined for four rebounds in the contest. Since 2003-04, both teams have won four games in the series.
 
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Following the Bloomsburg contest Slippery Rock will conclude its season by playing 13 PSAC-West games starting with a trip to Erie, Pa. to take on Mercyhurst on Saturday at 1 p.m.
 
Slippery Rock then returns home for back-to-back home games against rivals Indiana on Jan. 17 and Clarion on Jan. 21. The two matchups are set for 5:30 and 6 p.m. tipoffs, respectively.