KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The 14th ranked Kutztown University men's basketball team closed the first half on a 40-16 run to break the game open on the way to handing Slippery Rock an 88-69 loss Sunday afternoon in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference action.
 
The loss drops Slippery Rock to 2-3 overall and 0-2 in PSAC games, while Kutztown remains unbeaten and improves to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in league games.
 
The Rock led 9-6 early in the game and shot 80 percent from the field for the first six minutes of the game before Kutztown blew the game open with a 40-16 run over the final 14 minutes of the opening period to take a 49-27 lead into the break.
 
Slippery Rock outscored the Golden Bears 42-39 in the second half but could never recover from the halftime deficit.
 
Turnovers and foul trouble were the major issues for The Rock Sunday as the team committed 30 total fouls and sent Kutztown to the free throw line 38 times. The Golden Bears converted 27 of those free throws to outscore SRU 27-11 at the charity stripe. Slippery Rock finished with 22 turnovers that Kutztown turned into 24 points and the hosts turned the ball over just eight times in the game.
 
Naquil Jones paced Slippery Rock with a game-high 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting. He also pulled down six rebounds, handed out two assists and had two steals. Merdic Green had his second straight double figure scoring effort with 14 points.
 
George Chase and Amir Maddred each added nine points and Tony Gates finished with six points and five rebounds to cap the top performers for SRU.
 
Slippery Rock had its second best shooting performance of the year, finishing 50 percent from the floor (27-of-54), 30.8 percent from 3-point (4-of-13) and 55 percent at the free throw line (11-of-20). The Rock posted a 38-30 edge in total rebounds and has now outrebounded their opponent in each of the five games this season.
 
Kutztown shot 48.3 percent from the field (28-of-58), 35.7 percent from 3-point (5-of-14) and 71.1 percent from the free throw line (27-of-38). The Golden Bears outscored SRU 42-24 in the paint, 24-5 in points off turnovers, 11-9 in second chance points and 18-6 in fast break points.
 
Dan Cuevas paced Kutztown with 19 points. Anthony Lee added 14, Ryan Connolly scored 13 and Josh Johnson scored 12 to complete a balanced scoring attack.
 
Slippery Rock will sandwich a pair of games around Thanksgiving this week, hosting the University of D.C. at 2 p.m. Wednesday and traveling to Daemen Friday for a 2 p.m. game. The Rock returns to PSAC action next weekend, hosting West Chester Dec. 3 and hosting Cheyney Dec. 4.