ERIE, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team put together a 17-6 run late in the game to earn its sixth straight win, 49-46 on the road at Mercyhurst University Tuesday night in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division action.
 
The victory improves The Rock to 9-4 overall and 5-2 in PSAC games and sets up a first place showdown Friday night at Morrow Field House when No. 16 Indiana (Pa.) visits SRU. The Crimson Hawks escaped a late scare at home against Pitt-Johnstown Tuesday night to improve to 11-2 overall and 6-1 in PSAC action, staying one game up on SRU in the division. Mercyhurst slipped below .500 with the loss Tuesday night, dropping to 5-6 overall and 3-4 in league games.
 
Tuesday night's game featured two of the top defenses in the PSAC as Slippery Rock entered ranked first in the league in scoring defense and shooting percentage defense and Mercyhurst entered ranked third in scoring defense and fifth in shooting percentage defense. The game held true to form as both teams struggled to shoot better than 30 percent.
 
The Rock held the advantage early in the first half, but Mercyhurst trimmed the deficit to two points and trailed 24-22 at halftime. The Lakers took a slim lead midway through the second half after Slippery Rock scored just two points in the opening eight minutes and the hosts maintained a four-point edge, 36-32 with 9:08 to play.
 
From there, Christal Malalu knocked down a pair of layups to spark an 8-0 run that swung Slippery Rock back in front for good. The Rock added to that run and closed a 17-6 run with a pair of free throws from Naquil Jones to make it 49-42 with 16 seconds to play. Durrell McDonald scored four points over the final 16 seconds for the Lakers, but it wasn't enough to close the gap.
 
Jones led all scorers in the game with 21 points, marking his second straight 20-point outing. He also pulled down a game-high eight rebounds and made all five of his free throw attempts to run his streak to four straight games without a miss (19-of-19).
 
Khyree Wooten added 10 points and four boards and Jordan Marrow scored eight points and pulled down five rebounds. Malalu finished with six points and Merdic Green scored four points as The Rock only had five players record points in the game. Vinny Lasley pulled down seven rebounds to help The Rock to a 42-30 edge in rebounding, marking the 13th straight game SRU has outrebounded its opponents.
 
Slippery Rock shot 32.7 percent from the field (16-of-49), 31.3 percent from 3-point (5-of-16) and 70.6 percent at the free throw line (12-of-17).
 
Mercyhurst shot just 28.9 percent from the field (13-of-45) and 14.3 percent from 3-point (2-of-14), but stayed in the game by knocking down 18-of-22 attempts from the free throw line (81.8 percent).
 
Lorenzo Collier scored 14 points, with eight at the line, to lead the Lakers. McDonald finished with 13 points and no other Mercyhurst players scored more than five.
 
Tuesday night's win was the fourth in a row in the series for Slippery Rock, which broke the rubber-match and improves to 24-23 all-time in the series. The victory was the sixth straight for SRU dating back to Dec. 3.
 
No. 16 Indiana (Pa.) visits Morrow Field House Friday night for a 7:30 p.m. tip.