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WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team pulled off a 65-57 upset over Gannon University in the opening round of the NCAA Division II Tournament Saturday at the Academic Sports and Recreation Complex at West Liberty University.
 
The Rock advances to the second round of the national tournament for the second time in the last three years and will meet rival Indiana University (Pa.) Sunday at 5 p.m. at West Liberty. The third seeded Crimson Hawks defeated Mountain East champion and sixth seeded Glenville State 73-53 Saturday. The winner of that game will advance to the Round of 16 and the Atlantic Region final Tuesday night.
 
Saturday's opening round featured seventh seed Slippery Rock (21-10) and No. 2 seed Gannon (23-9), which entered the game on an eight-game winning streak that included winning the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference tournament title last weekend. It proved to be redemption for The Rock after the Golden Knights posted a 71-45 win just 11 days ago to knock SRU out of the PSAC tournament.
 
"We were embarrassed up at Gannon in our last game," said head coach Kevin Reynolds in his postgame press conference. "We are a prideful team and we really had a lot to prove to ourselves today after that performance. We were 0-for-3 against them this year and 0-for-6 the last two years but our guys believed in the plan and came out and executed it to perfection today. That was a total team effort from beginning to end and I couldn't be more proud of our guys."
 
Saturday's NCAA game was drastically different from the last meeting when Gannon shot nearly 70 percent in the opening 20 minutes and led 44-22 at halftime. This time around, the Slippery Rock defense and its full court pressure held the Golden Knights to just 26 first half points and a final shooting percentage of 41.5.
 
Slippery Rock also returned to its dominant ways in the paint Saturday, posting a 42-38 rebounding advantage and scoring 15 second chance points off 16 offensive rebounds. In the three previous meetings with Gannon this season, SRU averaged only 27.3 rebounds per game and never had more than 28 in a single game.
 
The Rock put together one of their most balanced efforts of the season on the offensive side of the floor with all nine players that saw the court scoring at least two points. Four players reached double figures in the same game for the first time since Feb. 14 against Seton Hill.
 
Frank Holloway led the way with arguably his best performance of the season. He scored 17 points and grabbed six rebounds in 28 minutes. He was also a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line while the rest of the team struggled at the charity stripe. Holloway scored 14 of his points in the second half and shot 50 percent in the final 20 minutes.
 
Jamal Gatali also played his best game of the season and finished with a career-high 12 points on four 3-pointers. Antonio Butler was pressured most of the day with double coverage when he touched the ball and still managed to reach double figures for the 23rd straight game, finishing with 10 points. Desma Nicholson added 10 points, including a massive long-range 3-pointer at the end of the first half that gave SRU a 27-26 lead and momentum heading into the break.
 
Malcolm Richardson chipped in six points and three assists, Erik Raleigh added four points, Chaquille Pratt scored two points and grabbed seven rebounds and Abdul King and Jordan Grady both added two points.
 
Slippery Rock finished the game shooting 40.7 percent from the field (22-of-54), 40 percent from 3-point (8-of-20) and 54.2 percent from the free throw line (13-of-24).
 
Gannon shot 41.5 percent from the field (22-of-53), 33.3 percent from 3-point (3-of-9) and 47.6 percent from the free throw line (10-of-21).
 
Adam Blazek led the Golden Knights with 13 points, but was held to just four points in the second half. Jean Yves Toupane added 10 points and was the only other Gannon player in double figures. The Golden Knight's leading scorer on the season, Girbran Smith, was held to just six points on 2-of-8 shooting as the SRU defensive game plan was to keep Smith from getting the open looks he had 11 days ago.
 
The opening half was a back and forth affair with neither team establishing an advantage. There were a total of 13 lead changes and three ties in the first 20 minutes with SRU earning the last of those changes on Nicholson's long 3-pointer at the buzzer.
 
Gannon made the first bucket of the second half for the 14th lead change of the game and then Slippery Rock made the 15th and final lead change with a 3-pointer from Gatali on the next possession with 18:47 to play.
 
From there, The Rock put together a 15-6 run to open up a 42-34 lead with 13:24 and would never trail again. The lead grew to 10 points on two occasions, the last time at 48-38 with 10:28 to play, before Gannon put together a 7-2 run to cut the deficit to five points.
 
Six straight points from Holloway pushed it out to a game-high 11-point advantage, 58-47, with 6:15 to play.
 
Gannon didn't fold and put together a 7-0 run to pull to within four points, 60-56, with 3:02 to play, but another big play from Holloway ended that run when he scored a bucket and connected on the free throw to make it 63-56 with 1:30 to play. The Golden Knights would get one more free throw from there and stopped fouling with 22 seconds left as SRU ran out the clock.
 
The victory is the third all-time in the NCAA Division II Tournament for Slippery Rock and the second in the last three years. The Rock are making their fifth appearance in the national tournament and now own an all-time record of 3-5. Two years ago, also as a No. 7 seed, Slippery rock defeated Winston-Salem in the opening round before being knocked out by Indiana in a one possession game in the second round.
 
The Rock and the Crimson Hawks split their two meetings this season with each team winning on their home floor. Slippery Rock posted a 75-71 win at home Jan. 17 and was defeated 69-61 at Indiana on Feb. 18.
 
A complete preview, game notes and live coverage options will be posted to www.RockAthletics.com Saturday night.
 
 
NOTES: Slippery Rock earned its third NCAA Division II Tournament win in program history … The Rock are now 3-5 all-time in the national tournament … SRU will play Indiana at 5 p.m. Sunday in the second round at West Liberty … The Rock reaches the second round of the tournament for the second time in the last three years … Saturday's win was the 1,200th win in program history for SRU … Four players reached double figures for the first time in the last six games … Antonio Butler scored in double figures for the 23rd straight game … Frank Holloway's 17 points were a game-high and 14 of those came in the second half … SRU recorded a 42-38 rebounding advantage … the highest total rebounds for SRU in each of the first three meetings with Gannon this year was just 28 … all nine players that saw time for Slippery Rock scored at least two points ... Saturday's game was the first neutral floor meeting against Gannon in a series that dates back to 1948 ... Gannon is now 26-13 in the series.