Highlights  |  Postgame Interview

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team locked up a first round bye in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference playoffs with an 81-79 comeback win over Edinboro University Wednesday night at Morrow Field House.
 
The victory improves Slippery Rock to 19-7 overall and 16-3 in PSAC games and guarantees The Rock of no lower than a second place finish in the PSAC West standings. Edinboro saw its hunt for the final playoff spot in the PSAC West take a hit and dropped to 8-15 overall and 5-13 in league games.
 
SRU is currently just a half-game behind No. 2 IUP for first place in the division and would own the tiebreaker over the Crimson Hawks if the teams were to finish with the same record. Wednesday's win also guarantees Slippery Rock of a first round bye in the PSAC playoffs and a home game in the quarterfinal round Wednesday, March 6. That is significant, as The Rock have won 11 straight home games and are 10-0 at home against PSAC teams this year.
 
Locking up that bye didn't come easy for SRU Wednesday night as Edinboro shot 50 percent from 3-point for the first 25 minutes of the game and held SRU to under 40 percent shooting over that same stretch. The Rock jumped out to an eight-point lead midway through the first half before the Fighting Scots rallied to take a 37-36 lead into halftime.
 
Edinboro maintained a lead for the majority of the second half, as Slippery Rock wouldn't regain the edge until after the final media timeout with 3:32 to play. What appeared as if it could be the decisive run of the night came when Edinboro broke a 53-53 tie with a 7-0 push on the way to extending the lead out to a game-high nine points, 70-61, with 6:05 to play.
 
From there, Slippery Rock rallied with a 10-0 run that included five points from Nik Cazacu and was capped with a layup from Nolen Gerald to give The Rock their first lead of the second half, 71-70 with 3:32 to play.
 
Edinboro would tie the game two times after that but never saw the lead again. Fighting Scot forward Trey Staunch hit one of two free throws with 57 seconds left to cut the SRU lead to 75-74, but that would be as close as it got. Jared Armstrong drilled an open 3-pointer on the next SRU possession and Cazacu made one of two free throws to extend the lead to five points with just 32 seconds to play. Edinboro pulled down three straight offensive rebounds and eventually hit a 3-pointer with seven seconds left, but Armstrong put the game away with a pair of free throws with five seconds left.
 
Slippery Rock held Edinboro to just 27.3 percent (3-of-11) from 3-point in the second half after the Fighting Scots shot 50.0 percent from long range over the first 20 minutes (7-of-14). Edinboro shot 37.1 percent overall in the second half and finished the game at 39.7 percent from the field (27-of-68), 40.0 percent from 3-point (10-of-25) and 71.4 percent from the free throw line (15-of-21). The Fighting Scots also finished with a 50-42 edge in total rebounds and scored 26 second chance points on 18 offensive rebounds.
 
The Rock countered that by playing one of their cleanest games all year from a ball-handling standpoint, finishing with just six turnovers on offense and making Edinboro pay for its 14 giveaways by posting a 22-6 edge in points off turnovers. SRU also blocked a total of seven shots and finished with a 9-0 margin in steals. Those advantages helped offset an unimpressive shooting performance as SRU shot just 40.5 percent from the field (30-of-74), 25.0 percent from 3-point (7-of-28) and 70 percent from the free throw line (14-of-20).
 
Gerald matched his career-high to lead all scorers in the game with 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting. He also grabbed five rebounds, handed out five assists, blocked three shots and grabbed three steals.
 
Armstrong scored 18 points, while John Warren II added 12 points and Cazucu scored a big 11 points to go with six rebounds and three blocks off the bench. Vinny Lasley added 10 points and nine rebounds to give The Rock a total of five players in double figures.
 
Edinboro was paced by DeAnthony Owens with 23 points and eight rebounds and Alex Jay with a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds.
 
Wednesday night's win was the fourth in a row for Slippery Rock with all four coming without the services of injured All-American Micah Till, who is the leading scorer and rebounder in the PSAC West at 21.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game.
 
Slippery Rock will now turn its attention to the final two regular season games of the year with a road trip to Pitt-Johnstown set for this Saturday and a home game against Gannon set for next Saturday, March 2.
 


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