SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team will play at Clarion University on Sunday at 1 p.m. in what is a near must-win game for SRU to keep its Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament hopes alive.
LIVE COVERAGEThe Clarion University sports information office will provide live statistics and audio of Sunday's game at the above links.
THE ROCK'S PLAYOFF PICTURE• With two games to play in the regular season, Slippery Rock is one game out of sixth place in the PSAC-West standings with a league mark of 6-14. Seton Hill and Pitt-Johnstown occupy the fifth and six spots in the standings with matching 7-13 conference records. The top six teams in both divisions in the PSAC at the conclusion of the regular season qualify for the postseason conference tournament.
• The only way for Slippery Rock to be eliminated from playoff consideration Sunday is with a loss combined with a Pitt-Johnstown win against Indiana and a Seton Hill victory against Mercyhurst.
• SRU currently holds tiebreakers over both the Mountain Cats and Griffins so a Rock win paired with losses by UPJ and Seton Hill would send Slippery Rock into Wednesday's regular season finale against California as an odds on favorite to make the tournament.
• If Slippery Rock were to qualify for the PSAC Tournament, it would be the school's first postseason appearance since the 2005-06 season.
LAST TIME OUTSlippery Rock erased a 17-point first half deficit, but couldn't quite pull off the comeback victory in an 86-77 loss at ninth ranked Indiana University (Pa.) on Feb. 18 at the Kovalchick Center.
Slippery Rock was led by the duo of senior forward
D'Asia Chambers and junior guard
Taylor Siggers. Chambers scored 21 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. Siggers nearly matched Chambers with 19 points in addition to a season-high seven assists.
Freshman guard
Shannon Jack and sophomore guard
Audrey Stapleton chipped in nine and eight points, respectively, off the bench.
SRU finished with a season-low six turnovers while shooting 46.2 percent (30-for-65) from the field and 75 percent (12-for-16) from the foul line. The Crimson Hawks made 50.8 percent (30-for-59) of their field goals and 60.9 percent (14-for-23) of their free throws.
UPPING THE OFFENSIVE OUTPUTSlippery Rock has produced four of its highest seven point totals of the season in its last five games. Over the stretch, that has included three Rock wins, SRU is averaging 75.6 points per game (ppg), up 10.1 points from its overall average on the year.
Helping Slippery Rock's newfound high-scoring offense has been Siggers, who has contributed 17.0 ppg and is shooting 48.6 percent (35-for-72) during the run.
Siggers' 11.6 ppg is the highest average for any Rock guard in their first year with the program since former SRU All-America honoree Becky Siembak scored 15.5 ppg as a freshman in 1999-00.
BEST IN THE ATLANTIC REGIONStapleton is the only player in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region who has taken at least 85 field goal attempts and 35 free throw attempts to compile shooting percentages of 47.8 percent (43-for-90) from the field and 94.7 percent (36-for-38) from the foul line. For perspective, there are 41 women's basketball teams in the region and over 600 players.
At one point this season, Stapleton made 29 straight free throw attempts.
Since starting the season 9-for-23 (39.1 percent) from the field, Stapleton has gone on to make 34 of her last 67, or 50.7 percent of her attempts.
LUCKY 11?A Rock victory against Clarion would improve Slippery Rock's overall record in 2014-15 to 11-14. The 11 wins would tie this year's team with the 2008-09 squad for the most wins by a Slippery Rock team over the last nine seasons.
Considering that Seton Hill (Mercyhurst / Gannon) and Pitt-Johnstown (Indiana / Edinboro) conclude their seasons by combining to play three of the top four teams in the PSAC-West standings, an 11th win would likely also be enough to get Slippery Rock into the PSAC Tournament for the first time since 2005-06.
ROCK LEADERSSlippery Rock is ranked among the top half of the PSAC in a variety of statistical categories. Through 24 games, SRU is second in the league in free throw percentage (.736), eighth in field goal percentage defense (.386), eighth in rebounding (40.2), eighth in blocked shots (3.3), ninth in rebounding margin (+1.3) and ninth in steals (7.8).
Chambers is the PSAC's second leading scorer at 16.6 ppg and the league's third ranked rebounder with 9.8 rebounds per game (rpg). Her .495 field goal percentage is also the seventh highest in the league. At 11.2 ppg, Siggers is SRU's second leading scorer.
Junior guard
Erica Aiello has recorded team-bests in assists per game (3.6), the sixth most in the PSAC, and three-pointers made (26) while scoring 8.9 ppg.
In addition to averaging 4.6 rpg and scoring 4.4 ppg, junior forward
Megan Hardiman also shoots a team-best .803 (53-for-66) from the foul line.
Stapleton has seen an increase in minutes as of late and has responded by giving Slippery Rock a scoring threat off the bench, averaging 9.0 ppg over SRU's previous eight games. Stapleton is also a .947 percent (36-for-38) free throw shooter.
700 CLUBChambers is one rebound away from No. 700 for her career, which would make her just the fifth player in Rock history reach the benchmark.
Chambers already ranks 10th in SRU history in steals (122), 11th in blocks (54) and 11th in points (1,258): she is only 17 points away from moving into 10th place.
She is also the only player in the PSAC to rank in the top 17 in scoring (second), rebounding (third), field goal percentage (seventh) and steals (17th).
SUCCESS AT THE FOUL LINESlippery Rock is making its free throws at a historic rate. At its current free throw percentage of .736, this year's team would rank second in Rock history behind the 2001-02 (.748) squad.
Helping SRU to one of its top free throw shooting seasons in school history is a collection of six players shooting at least .690 from the charity stripe in Stapleton (.947 / 36-for-38), Jack (.806 / 29-for-36), Hardiman (.803 / 53-for-66), Chambers (.733 / 85-for-116), Aiello (.700 / 42-for-60) and Siggers (.685 / 50-for-73).
Slippery Rock is the only team in the PSAC to have six shooters, with at least 36 free throw attempts on the season, shoot .680 percent and is one of just two teams, along with Bloomsburg to have five players shooting at least .700 percent.
SCOUTING CLARIONThe Golden Eagles enter Sunday's game at 2-23 overall and 1-19 in the PSAC-West. Clarion will look to snap its current five-game losing streak and play the role of spoiler. Only two of Clarion's losses this season have been by 10 points or less.
Leading the way for the Golden Eagles this season has been the combination of Tania Holmes and Delrika Jones-Carey. Holmes averages a team-high of 15.0 ppg while Jones-Carey nearly goes for a double-double a night at 11.8 ppg and 8.1 rpg. Holmes scored 20 points against Slippery Rock in Clarion's 68-57 loss at SRU earlier in the year.
As a team, Clarion averages a league-low 55.1 ppg while surrendering 71.3 ppg. The Golden Eagles are shooting 37.9 percent from the field and has allowed opponents to shoot 42.8 percent.
THE COACHESLeading 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. McGraw has needed just over half of a season to record what are already the most wins by a Rock team in the last six seasons.
Jana Ashley was named the Clarion University women's basketball coach on July 1, 2014. Ashley comes to Clarion after spending a year at Iona where she helped the Gales go 26-6 last season, win the regular season MAAC Championship and earn a berth in the Women's NIT Tournament. In 11 years as a Division I assistant (five at Radford, five at George Mason and one at Iona), Ashley helped coach three 20-win teams.
SERIES HISTORYWith its 11-point victory against Clarion at Morrow Field House earlier in the season, Slippery Rock pulled to within three games of Clarion in the all-time series, which CU currently leads 38-35. In its most recent win against Clarion, Chambers went for a double-double of 21 points and 10 rebounds while Hardiman scored a season-high 14 points.
UP NEXTSlippery Rock concludes its regular season at home on Feb. 25 when The Rock hosts California at 6 p.m. in a contest that is sure to have a great impact on the PSAC Tournament picture.
