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CLARION, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team continued its disappointing play away from Morrow Field House with a 72-70 upset loss Sunday afternoon on the road at Clarion in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division action.
 
The loss drops The Rock to two games under .500 on the road this season at 5-7 and marks the second loss of the week. Slippery Rock sees its records fall to 18-9 overall and 13-8 in PSAC games. The loss Sunday will also likely be costly for the team's hopes of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. Slippery Rock was ranked sixth in the initial regional rankings that were announced by the NCAA Wednesday, but has since lost two games, including a road loss at No. 3 Indiana and the loss to unranked Clarion.
 
The Golden Eagles were outperformed in just about every statistical category Sunday, but made Slippery Rock pay for foul trouble. The Rock took 20 more field goal attempts in the game, made six more field goals, one more 3-pointer and posted a 46-31 edge in rebounding, but Clarion outscored SRU 22-7 from the free throw line as the hosts made 28 trips to the charity stripe compared to just 12 trips for The Rock.
 
Clarion improved to 10-15 overall and 7-14 in PSAC action with the win. The Golden Eagles were already eliminated from postseason contention before the game.
 
Slippery Rock remains No. 4 in the Western Division standings, where it will finish. The Rock will host the No. 5 seed in the west in the opening round of the playoffs Saturday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. A win in that game would send SRU on the road to Gannon for the second round for the second year in a row. Edinboro currently occupies the No. 5 seed with one game to play, but Pitt-Johnstown and California are tied for the sixth spot and are still alive as well.
 
Lost in the disappointment of the result Sunday was another outstanding performance from Chaquille Pratt, who scored a career-high 27 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for a double-double.
 
Antonio Butler added 18 points and five rebounds for SRU as those two combined to scored 45 of the team's 70 points. Malcolm Richardson and Desma Nicholson each added seven points and Erik Raleigh scored six points and grabbed six boards.
 
Slippery Rock finished the game shooting 40.3 percent from the field (29-of-72), 35.7 percent from 3-point (5-of-14) and 58.3 percent at the free throw line (7-of-12). The Rock recorded 24 offensive rebounds and posted a 22-5 advantage in second chance scoring, but turned the ball over 19 times.
 
Clarion finished the game shooting 44.2 percent from the field (23-of-52), 40 percent from 3-point (4-of-10) and 78.6 percent at the free throw line (22-of-28). Slippery Rock was called for 13 fouls in the second half, while Clarion was whistled just seven times.
 
BJ Andrews led the hosts with 24 points. Kyheim Hall added 15 points, including the winning free throws, and Rob Agurs added 12 points.
 
Slippery Rock made just one field goal in the last five minutes of the game and did not score for the final 3:13. Clarion wasn't much better, failing to convert a field goal for the final 2:51, but did manage to score from the free throw line.
 
The game opened with Slippery Rock jumping out to a 21-11 lead midway through the first period. Clarion responded by closing the half on a 25-13 run and knocked down a jumper near the buzzer to take a 36-34 lead into the intermission.
 
Neither team could gain an advantage of more than four points for most of the second half until Clarion led 62-61 with 6:06 to play. Slippery Rock put together a 7-0 run to take a 68-62 lead with 4:55 to play, the largest advantage for either team in the final 20 minutes.
 
Pratt scored what would be the last points of the game for SRU with 3:13 to play with a layup that made it 70-66 in favor of the visitors.
 
From there, Clarion got one more field goal with 2:51 to play to make it a two-point game and then made four free throws down the stretch, including the last two that made it 72-70 with just under 40 seconds to go.
 
Slippery Rock called timeout with 11 seconds to play and set up a shot for Butler that missed, but the rebound went out of bounds off a Clarion player with 0.7 seconds left. On the inbounds play, Nicholson got a decent look at a 3-pointer from the corner, but his shot was just long off the iron as Clarion held on for the win.
 
Sunday was the final regular season road game for Slippery Rock, which will close the regular season at home Wednesday night against California (Pa.) at 8 p.m. The Rock will honor their seven seniors in a pregame ceremony.