SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team took a big step toward securing a postseason berth with a wire-to-wire 65-57 victory over Gannon University Saturday night in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division action from Morrow Field House.
 
The Rock's win improves the team to 15-12 overall and 10-11 in PSAC games with one game left in the regular season. The victory, coupled with a Clarion loss to Pitt-Johnstown Saturday afternoon clears up the postseason picture for Slippery Rock. If SRU wins its final game Wednesday at Pitt-Johnstown, it will qualify for the PSAC playoffs either as the No. 5 seed if Seton Hill loses to Indiana, or as the No. 6 seed if Seton Hill defeats Indiana. A Slippery Rock loss at UPJ will drop SRU down to the No. 7 spot in the Western Division and out of the playoffs.
 
Saturday night's game was a mirror image of the last five games for Slippery Rock, which has seen Cornelius Brown emerge as one of the best overall players in the PSAC during that stretch. His dominance was on display and reached a new level against Gannon as the senior topped his career-high and finished with 33 points and 15 rebounds. It marked his fifth consecutive double-double, his 14th overall double-double of the year and his second straight game with a career-high effort.
 
On the week, Brown scored 62 points (31.5 ppg) and pulled down 29 rebounds (14.5 rpg), while shooting 63 percent from the field and 87 percent from the free throw line. Over the last three games, he strung together an incredible 30 consecutive made free throw attempts, a streak that ended when he missed his seventh of the night Saturday.
 
Brown is averaging 24.2 points and 14.0 rebounds per game over the last five SRU games, while shooting 58.5 percent from the field and 81.5 percent at the free throw line.
 
Malcolm Richardson was the only other Rock player to reach double figures Saturday night, finishing with 11 points and six rebounds. Jamal Gatali added six points and five rebounds and Abdul King chipped in five points and a career-high 10 rebounds.
 
Slippery Rock scored the first nine points of the game and led by double figures for most of the second half before Gannon mounted a late rally, but the Golden Knights would get no closer than five points down the stretch.
 
The Rock finished the game shooting 40.4 percent from the field (19-of-47), 40 percent from 3-point (6-of-15) and 72.4 percent at the free throw line (21-of-29). Brown and King's dominance in the paint led to a 43-29 edge in total rebounding in the game.
 
Gannon shot 30.8 percent from the field against the league's best field goal percentage defense (16-of-52), 20 percent from 3-point (2-of-10) and 82.1 percent at the free throw line (23-of-28).
 
Ian Gardener led the Golden Knights with 19 points, which included 11 points from the free throw line. Jean Yves Toupane scored 12 points and Kevin Kuteyi added 10 for the defending PSAC Champions, which saw their season records dip to 7-18 overall and 6-15 in league play.
 
Saturday night was also Senior Night for Slippery Rock with seven seniors celebrating their final home game. No matter what happens with potential playoff seeding, SRU will not play another game at home this season. Brown, King, Richardson, Gatali, Jordan Grady, Maxx Rynd and Erik Raleigh were all honored in a pregame ceremony.
 
SRU has won 76 games over the last four years and qualified two NCAA Division II Tournaments. The Rock have now won at least 15 games in each of the last eight years and have guaranteed themselves of a winning record for the eighth straight year, all under head coach Kevin Reynolds. Slippery Rock has averaged 19 wins per year during that stretch.

The Rock will now turn their focus to Wednesday night's 7:30 p.m. must-win game at Pitt-Johnstown.