ETTRICK, Va. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team lost to St. Augustine's University, 60-50, Saturday night at the Tip-off Classic on the campus of Virginia State University in Ettrick, Virginia.
The loss evens The Rock's record to 1-1 on the season while St. Augustine's improves to 2-0.
Senior center
Cornelius Brown paced The Rock with 19 points, eight rebounds and one block. Senior guard
Malcolm Richardson added 15 points while junior forward
Chaquille Pratt chipped in eight points to round out SRU's offensive leaders. Richardson also had four rebounds and a team-high three assists.
Senior guard
Dontay Jackson led SRU's defense with three steals.
Slippery Rock played sound defense, but was unable to overcome a rough night offensively in which it shot just 30.2 percent from the field overall (13-for-43) and 8.3 percent (1-for-12) from three-point range.
SRU and St. Augustine's played to a 19-19 tie through the first 15 minutes of the opening period, but the Falcons closed the opening half on a 5-0 run to take a 24-19 lead into the break. St. Augustine's grew its lead to as many as nine points to start the second half before SRU rallied with a 14-4 run to take a 33-28 lead with 13:37 remaining in regulation. Brown and Richardson combined for 11 points during the run.
However, the Falcons quickly rebounded with a decisive 14-0 run of its own over the next six minutes to retake the lead, 42-33, with less than eight minutes to play in the second half. Slippery Rock closed the gap to as little as four points, but could not pull off the comeback as the Falcons held on for the eventual 10-point victory.
Quincy January led St. Augustine's to the victory with a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Slippery Rock will look to return to its winning ways when it travels to Edinboro University 7:30 p.m. Wednesday for its Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division opener. Slippery Rock swept the season series, and defeated the Fighting Scots in the PSAC Tournament, a year ago.
