Traditional Box Score (HTML)

EDINBORO, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team, led by a career-high double-double from Malcolm Richardson, locked up a berth in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference playoffs for the sixth time in the last seven years with a 75-64 victory at Edinboro University Wednesday night in PSAC Western Division action.
 
Richardson was dominant in the victory, scoring a career-high 25 points and pulling down a career-high 11 rebounds. He also handed out a team-high three assists and was among the only Rock players to shoot better than 35 percent in the game.
 
Slippery Rock becomes the fourth team in the Western Division to clinch a playoff berth. The race for the top spot tightened Wednesday as top seed and nationally ranked Indiana (Pa.) was upset by Mercyhurst. Gannon won its game at Clarion to move a half game up on the rest of the division at 15-4 with three games to play. Indiana slots in second at 14-4 with four games to play. Mercyhurst sits third at 14-5 with three games to play and Slippery Rock is fourth at 12-6 with four games to play, including a road trip to Indiana next Wednesday. The remaining two playoff spots from the West will likely be settled by Pitt-Johnstown (9-9 with four to play), California (9-10 with three to play) and Edinboro (8-11 with three to play).
 
The victory Wednesday night was the fifth in a row for Slippery Rock over Edinboro and improved The Rock to 17-7 overall and 12-6 in league action. The Fighting Scots saw their overall record drop to 11-12 and their conference mark fall to 8-11.
 
Edinboro jumped out to a 12-2 lead with 13:09 to play in the first half as Slippery Rock struggled out of the gate after a week layoff. The Rock answered with their own 12-2 run to tie the game at 14-14 with 9:02 to play before halftime.
 
From there, the teams traded buckets for a total of eight ties the rest of the half. The final tie of the period was broken by a free throw from Abdul King that gave Slippery Rock a 34-33 halftime lead.
 
The teams again traded buckets to open the second half, producing the game's ninth and 10th ties, the final of which came at 38-38 with 16:44 to play.
 
From there, The Rock blew the game open with a 14-4 run to take a 10-point lead, 52-42 with 10:27 to play.
 
Edinboro rallied back to cut the deficit to five points with 1:45 to play, but Slippery Rock knocked down its free throws and closed the game on an 8-2 run to seal the win and clinch the playoff spot.
 
Coming off its worst shooting effort of the season one week ago in a win over Mercyhurst (28.8 percent), Slippery Rock hoped for a better effort Wednesday night on the road. It wasn't much better at 34.8 percent (23-of-66), the ninth time in the last 10 games that the team failed to shoot 40 percent from the field. SRU was 3-of-16 from 3-point (18.8 percent) and was 26-of-37 at the free throw line (70.3 percent).
 
Despite the shooting woes on offense, The Rock's defense continued to control the game. Edinboro was held to just a 26.9 percent shooting effort (18-of-67). The Scots were 23.8 percent from 3-point (5-of-21), but we just 1-of-8 from long range in the second half. Edinboro was 23-of-33 from the free throw line (69.7 percent).
 
Slippery Rock posted a 58-46 advantage in total rebounding and outscored Edinboro 26-16 in the paint and 23-2 in bench scoring.
 
Richardson finished the game shooting 8-of-15 from the field and was a perfect 7-of-7 at the free throw line in a game that featured 70 total free throws, 54 total fouls and three disqualifications due to fouls.
 
Antonio Butler also recorded a double-double for Slippery Rock with 15 points and 11 rebounds, but it came on a night when Butler managed just 4-of-20 from the field. It marked the 16th straight game he has reached double figure scoring and the 21st time in The Rock's 24 games.
 
King also recorded a career-high scoring effort with 11 points off the bench and he added seven rebounds. Frank Holloway capped the top scorers for SRU with eight points and six rebounds.
 
Edinboro was led by a game-high 29 points from Henry Wade-Chatman. Jaymon Mason added 17 points and Sam Sealy-James pulled down 11 rebounds.
 
Slippery Rock returns home to Morrow Field House Saturday to host Seton Hill in a PSAC West game at 3 p.m. The Rock will celebrate "Youth Sports Day" during the basketball doubleheader with all children under the age of 18 that are members of a sports team or club getting free admission for wearing their team jersey or SRU gear. All coaches that bring their teams to the game will be admitted for $5.
 
 
PSAC Playoff Picture (Western Division  - 6 teams qualify)
 
1. Gannon (15-4, 3 games to play) *
2. Indiana (14-4, 4 games to play) *
3. Mercyhurst (14-5, 3 games to play) *
4. Slippery Rock (12-6, 4 games to play) *
5. Pitt-Johnstown (9-9, 4 games to play)
6. California (9-10, 3 games to play)
7. Edinboro (8-11, 3 games to play)
8. Clarion (6-12, 4 games to play)
9. Seton Hill (5-13, 4 games to play) 

* Clinched PSAC playoff berth