CALIFORNIA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team dropped its second straight conference game after California University (Pa.) put together a 23-5 run over a seven-minute stretch late in the game to storm back for a 74-66 win Monday night at the Convocation Center.
 
The Rock led by eight points with 12 minutes to play and maintained a six-point lead with 8:07 to play, but California responded with an 8-0 run to take the lead and stretched that out to 23-5 to run away with the game. Slippery Rock closed the game on a 6-2 run, but ran out of time to recover. 
 
The loss is the second Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division loss in the last four days for Slippery Rock, which drops to 9-6 overall and 5-4 in PSAC games. California picked up its first PSAC win of the season to improve to 4-11 overall and 1-8 in league action.
 
Naquil Jones accounted for nearly half of Slippery Rock's production Monday night, finishing with a career-high 28 points. He also pilled down eight rebounds and handed out a team-high four assists.
 
Slippery Rock shot 43.6 percent from the field (24-of-55), 24 percent from 3-point (6-of-25) and 80 percent at the free throw line (12-of-15). The Rock were outscored 12-2 in second chance points as California posted a 37-36 edge in total rebounds, marking the first time this season that SRU has been outrebounded in a game.
 
Merdic Green added 11 points and Christal Malalu scored 10 points. Khyree Wooten scored eight points and grabbed six boards and George Chase scored five points and pulled down 10 rebounds.
 
California was led by Luka Andjusic with 23 points and nine rebounds. Rashawn Browne added 14 points, while Robel Teckle scored 11 points and Cordell Smith scored 10 points.
 
The Vulcans shot 41.9 percent from the field (26-of-62), 45.5 percent from 3-point (10-of-22) and 57.1 percent at the free throw line (12-of-21). It marked the second straight game that SRU allowed at least eight made 3-pointers.
 
Monday night's game was the second in a stretch of nine days for Slippery Rock, which will return home Wednesday night to host Clarion at 7 p.m.