INDIANA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team had its worst shooting effort in more than nine years in dropping a 77-48 decision on the road at No. 6 Indiana University (Pa.) Wednesday night in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division action.
 
Indiana moves into sole possession of first place in the PSAC West with the win and improves to 20-2 overall and 13-2 in PSAC games. Slippery Rock, which split the season series after upsetting No. 3 IUP earlier this season, drops to 15-7 overall and 12-3 in PSAC games to slip into second place in the division.
 
The two teams traded momentum early in the game before Slippery Rock went cold and allowed IUP to pull away in the opening period. The Rock shot just 21 percent from the field and took 10 fouls over the first 20 minutes. SRU missed numerous uncontested shots and Indiana made it count on the other end. The Crimson Hawks shot 54 percent in the opening half and made five 3-pointers on the way to leading 41-24 at the break.
 
Adding to the challenge of trying to recover from that deficit was the fact that Slippery Rock All-American Micah Till was injured in the first half and could not play in the second period. Till played less than 20 minutes in the game and still finished as the leading scorer for SRU with 10 points on the night.
 
That 17-point margin combined with playing without the top scorer and rebounder in the league was too much for SRU to overcome as The Rock dropped their 30th consecutive road game at Indiana (Pa.). SRU's last win at IUP came all the way back in 1992.
 
Indiana (Pa.) took advantage of Till not being on the floor for most of the night and controlled the paint, outrebounding SRU by a 46-25 margin, which helped to offset 22 turnovers by the Crimson Hawks. IUP shot 50 percent from the field (30-of-60), 36.4 percent from 3-point (8-of-22) and 64.3 percent from the free throw line (9-of-14).
 
SRU was limited to 25.9 percent shooting for the night (15-of-58), which marked its lowest shooting percentage for a game since a 25.8 percent effort against Gannon back on Jan. 20, 2010. The Rock were just 17.2 percent from 3-point (5-of-29) and were 61.9 percent from the free throw line (13-of-21).
 
Till's 10 points and four rebounds in limited minutes led the way and marked the only double-digit scoring effort for SRU. Vinny Lasley added nine points and John Warren II chipped in eight point and five assists as the only other players on the team with more than four points.
 
Indiana got 21 points from Malik Miller and 19 points from Jacobo Diaz.

After running off 12 consecutive wins, Slippery Rock has now dropped two of its last three games. The Rock will look to get back in the win column Saturday with a 3 p.m. road game at Seton Hill University.


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