JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team saw a furious second half rally come up just short in the final seconds of a 72-69 loss on the road at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Saturday in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division game.
 
The Rock outscored the Mountain Cats 45-34 over the final 20 minutes and erased a 16-point deficit with a 23-6 run early in the second half. That rally gave SRU its first lead since the opening bucket and made it 51-50 with 10:35 to play.
 
From there, the teams would trade the lead three times with neither squad able to push the advantage out to more than three points.
 
Donovan Walker hit a pair of free throws to tie the game at 67-67 with 1:28 to play for the final tie of the day. On the next possession, Josh Wise hit a 3-pointer late in the shot clock to put UPJ back out front 70-67 with 1:05 to play.
 
Will Robinson Jr. was fouled while shooting a 3-pointer on the next SRU possession and made two of the three free throws to cut the lead to 69-68. UPJ missed a layup the next time down and SRU rebounded the ball and called timeout with 6.7 seconds left and a chance to set up the winning play.
 
The Rock never got a chance at a game-winner though, turning the ball over on the in-bounds pass. UPJ took it the distance for a layup as time expired to account for the final points.
 
Pitt-Johnstown improved to 15-3 overall and 9-2 in PSAC games with the win, while Slippery Rock slipped to 8-9 overall and 4-7 in league games. Saturday's game marked the second straight and sixth overall game this season that SRU has played in where the final score was decided by three points or less. It was the eighth game this season decided by five points or less and the 10th decided by eight points or less.
 
Slippery Rock shot 64.3 percent from the field in the second half to rally back, but could never recover from a slow start in which The Rock shot 34.5 percent in the first half and trailed 38-24 at the break. SRU finished the game shooting 49.1 percent from the field (28-of-57), 25.0 percent from 3-point (2-of-8) and 78.6 percent from the free throw line (11-of-14). The Rock outrebounded UPJ by a 37-24 margin to mark their fourth straight game outrebounding the opposition by double digits.
 
Pitt-Johnstown shot 50.0 percent from the field (30-of-60), 23.8 percent from 3-point (5-of-21) and 87.5 percent from the free throw line (7-of-8).
 
Robinson finished with a game-high 24 points to mark his fourth straight game with at least 20 points. He also grabbed seven rebounds.
 
Micah Till added 16 points, nine rebounds, four steals and two blocks. In the process, he became the 12th player in SRU history to record 100 career steals and is now the only player in Rock history with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 100 blocks, 100 steals and 100 assists in a career.
 
Amante Britt scored a season-high 14 points and handed out six assists. Revelinio Tholel added five points and Deontae Robertson scored four points to cap the top scorers.
 
The Mountain Cats were led by Wise with 21 points. UPJ head coach Bob Rukavina picked up his 500th career victory with the win.
 
Slippery Rock will now turn its focus to a Wednesday night road trip to Mercyhurst for a 7:30 p.m. game.
 

 
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