CANTON, Ohio – The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team dropped a narrow 71-69 decision on the road in non-conference competition at Malone University Wednesday night at Osborne Hall.
 
The loss drops The Rock's record to 3-4 on the season overall. Slippery Rock's last two defeats have been by a total of just seven points. Malone's win, its first of the season, improves the Pioneers' record to 1-3.
 
Slippery Rock trailed Malone, 68-66, with two minutes remaining in regulation when Krista Pietropola connected on a 3-pointer off of a pass from C.C. Dixon to give Slippery Rock a one-point advantage with time running out. However, Malone retook the lead on the next possession when Hannah McCue made a 3-pointer of her own to give the Pioneers a 71-69 lead with 1:42 left to play.
 
SRU held Malone scoreless the rest of the game, but couldn't find the game-tying or game-winning basket in the contest's final 90 seconds; The Rock missed two jumpers and then, coming out of a timeout with five seconds to play, was unable to get off a last-second shot as Lexi Carpenter caught a pass from Dixon, but had the ball knocked out of her grasp and bounce back to midcourt when she was bumped by a Malone defender as time expired.
 
Slippery Rock had its best shooting night of the season, making 45.1 percent (23-of-51) of its field goal attempts and 90 percent (18-of-20) of its shots from the free throw line. After being outrebounded in its previous two games, Slippery Rock won the battle of the boards on Wednesday, 35-34, while also holding the Pioneers to a 39.3 (24-of-61) field goal percentage and a 30.8 percent (8-of-26) effort from 3-point range.
 
SRU's four-woman reserve unit of Dixon, Pietropola, Cassidy Wright and Sierra Fordham combined to score 33 points. The 33 bench points were the most by SRU's reserves this season.
 
Dixon had another strong showing, going 6-for-8 from the field overall, 1-for-1 from long distance and 1-for-2 from the free throw line for a team-high 14 points. She also collected a Rock-best eight rebounds to go with one assist and one block.
 
Wright scored nine points, Pietropola added six points, five rebounds and two steals while Fordham rounded out the bench scoring with four points.
 
Carpenter overcame a rough night shooting the ball from the field with a stellar effort from the foul line where she went 7-for-8 on the way to a 12-point, seven-assist outing. Fellow starter Morgan Henderson had eight points, four rebounds and two steals.
 
The freshmen duo of LeeAnn Gibson and Brooke Hinderliter started together for the second time this season. Gibson scored seven points, corralled six rebounds and handed out three assists while Hinderliter produced seven points. 
 
McCue led Malone to the win with a double-double of 23 points and 10 rebounds over 27 minutes. Malone turned the ball over just nine times and forced Slippery Rock into 15 miscues.
 
Wednesday's game featured seven ties and 11 lead changes. The Pioneers jumped out to a three-point lead following the first quarter only to see Slippery Rock dominate the second quarter, completely erasing its deficit and building a lead to as large as 10 points before settling for a 37-32 advantage heading into halftime.
 
Slippery Rock maintained its lead for nearly the entire third quarter and for the opening six minutes of the fourth quarter before the game's final minutes in which the lead went back-and-forth five times with Malone ultimately coming away with the win.
 
SRU will look to snap its three-game losing streak with a win against West Chester University when it makes its 2016-17 home debut Saturday at 1 p.m. at Morrow Field House.