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SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team will return to competition 5:30 p.m. Friday when it opens its Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division schedule on the road at Clarion University.
 
GAME 11 DETAILS
Opponent: Clarion University
Date: Friday, Jan. 2 – 5:30 p.m.
Location: Tippin Gymnasium | Clarion, Pennsylvania
Live Video: Link
Live Stats: Link
In-game Updates: Twitter (@Rock_Athletics)
All-Time Series: Slippery Rock leads 42-40
Last Played: Feb. 16, 2019 (Clarion won 92-78 at home)
 
SERIES HISTORY
SRU has won three of its last four games against Clarion to improve its record against the Golden Eagles to 42-40 all-time. A year ago, Slippery Rock and Clarion split two games with both teams winning on its respective home courts.
 
SLIPPERY ROCK PRIMER
• Overall Record: 3-8
• PSAC Record: 1-4
• PSAC West Standings: Eighth
• Home Record: 0-2
• Away Record: 3-5
• Neutral Site Record: 0-1
• Streak: W1
• Last 5 Games: 1-4
• Head Coach: Bobby McGraw | Sixth season (60-90)
 
QUICK HITS
• Slippery Rock entered its 12-day holiday break on a high note thanks to a one-point, 78-77 road win at West Chester on Dec. 21.
 
• Slippery Rock is 7-3 against Clarion under head coach Bobby McGraw.
 
• One of the top players in the PSAC, Brooke Hinderliter is averaging 25.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game over The Rock's five conference games this year. Hinderliter also comes into the game leading the nation with 77 made foul shots.
 
• Six of Slippery Rock's 11 games this season have been decided by 10 points or less. All three of The Rock's wins so far in 2019-20 have come by a total of just five points.
 
• After winning just two true road games all of last season, Slippery Rock has already won three road games this year.
 
HINDERLITER CONTINUES TO CLIMB ALL-TIME POINTS LIST
Hinderliter enters the Clarion game ranked sixth in program history for points in a career with 1,421.
 
Hinderliter, who is averaging  20.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.0 steals per game on the season, is on pace to finish her career with 1,761 points which would give her the program record for points in a career over Heather Kearney (1,760 points / 1995-99) by one point.
 
Currently she is 29 points away from surpassing Jackie Altenweg (1,449 points / 1998-02) and moving into fifth place in program history for points in a career.
 
WORKING OVERTIME
The Rock's game against West Chester was only SRU's fourth overtime contest in the last six years. Slippery Rock is 3-1 in those four outings.
 
THE ROCK IN RECENT PSAC WEST OPENERS
Slippery Rock is 2-3 in PSAC West openers under head coach Bobby McGraw. SRU will look to buck its current streak of two straight losses to open its PSAC West schedule as it lost to Seton Hill in both 2018-19 and 2017-18 to begin its divisional slate with a win against Clarion.
 
INDIVIDUAL SUCCESS vs. CLARION
Several current Rock players have experienced individual success against Clarion.
 
Hinderliter has averaged 16.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.0 steals in six games against the Golden Eagles.
 
Through four games against Clarion, Madison Johnson has averaged 14.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists per contest while LeeAnn Gibson has compiled 6.4 points and 5.0 rebounds in five games versus Clarion over her career.
 
A CAREER-YEAR IN THE MAKING
Johnson is in the process of turning in a career-year for The Rock. The redshirt senior is not only scoring 15.9 points per game, but she is also averaging 5.5 rebounds per game. Johnson has scored at least 10 points in every contest this season and has recorded 7.3 rebounds per game over The Rock's last four contests.
 
AUTOMATIC AT THE FOUL LINE
A strength for 2019-20 Slippery Rock women's basketball team has been its free throw shooting. Entering the weekend, Slippery Rock ranks fifth in NCAA Division II, and first in the PSAC, in free throws made with 210. Additionally, Slippery Rock is slotted second in the PSAC, and 29th in the nation, with a free throw percentage of .766.
 
Slippery Rock has shot 20 or more free throws in a game in nine of its 11 contests this year.
 
Of the six players to shoot at least 10 free throws for SRU this season, five are shooting at least 69 percent in Hinderliter (.865 / 77-for-89), Johnson (.793 / 46-for-58), Gibson (.765 / 26-for-34), Olivia Fusaro (.700 / 7-for-10) and Daeja Quick (.694 / 25-for-36).
 
APPROACHING THE 500/500 CLUB
Thanks to what has been a career-year, Gibson is currently on pace to become just the 17th player in program history to record 500 points and 500 rebounds in career.
 
Entering the Clarion game, Gibson has scored 516 points and grabbed 400 rebounds. With 17 games remaining in the regular season she needs to average 5.8 rebounds per contest the rest of the year to achieve the feat.
 
ATTACKING THE GLASS
A key to The Rock's overtime win at West Chester was a dominating performance on the glass where SRU held a +12 rebounding margin (51-39). Included in the 51 rebounds were 23 offensive rebounds, which The Rock turned into 22 second chance points.
 
The contest marked the first game that Slippery Rock had recorded at least 50 rebounds since Nov. 20, 2016 when it pulled in 57 rebounds against Kutztown (90 games). Additionally, SRU's 23 offensive rebounds were its most since Feb. 13, 2013 when it had 24 (179 games).
 
Gibson led The Rock's rebounding efforts against WCU with a career-high matching 13 rebounds, six of which came on the offensive glass. Hinderliter added nine rebounds followed by Johnson (seven), Anyah Curd (six) and Daeja Quick (five) to round out SRU's top rebounders in the game.
 
On the year, Gibson is averaging a team-high 7.9 rebounds per game with Johnson (5.5), Hinderliter (5.4), Karington Ketterer (4.8) and Curd (4.5) all corralling at least 4.0 rebounds per game as well.
 
As a team, SRU ranks fifth in the PSAC in rebounding at 39.3 per game. SRU figures to have an advantage on the glass against Clarion as the Golden Eagles enter the game with a -5.9 rebounding margin.
 
IMMEDIATE IMPACT INSIDE
It has taken Anyah Curd just 11 collegiate games to record the first 10 blocks of her career, which is already the 11th highest total of rejections by a Rock freshman in program history. Across the PSAC, Curd ranks 14th in total blocks and 16th in blocks per game (0.9).
 
ROUNDING OUT THE ROTATION
Rounding out The Rock's typical eight-player rotation along with Hinderliter, Johnson, Gibson and Curd are Ketterer, Quick, Fusaro and Kasch Harris.
 
Quick runs The Rock's offense the majority of the time, leading the team in assists at 3.1 per game while also serving as SRU's third-leading scorer (11.3 ppg). Ketterer has started all 11 games this season and is averaging 3.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and just under one steal per game.
 
Off the bench, Harris routinely spells Quick as SRU's lead guard while Fusaro serves as Slippery Rock's first off guard off the bench. She is coming off of an eight-point showing at West Chester. Eight of Fusaro's 12 made field goals this year have been 3-pointers.
 
CLARION PRIMER
• Overall Record: 2-9
• PSAC Record: 0-5
• PSAC West Standings: Ninth
• Home Record: 1-3
• Away Record: 1-5
• Neutral Site Record: 0-1
• Streak: L3
• Last 5 Games: 1-4
• Head Coach: Jana Ashley | Sixth season (44-108)
 
SCOUTING CLARION
• Clarion will host The Rock looking to snap a three-game losing streak after suffering setbacks against East Stroudsburg (74-53), Lock Haven (68-55) and Mansfield (62-59).
 
• The Golden Eagles enter the weekend ranked 17th in the PSAC in scoring (58.7 ppg), and 11th in points allowed per game (68.8). Free throws and rebounding have been issues for Clarion so far this season as the Golden Eagles currently rank 16th in the conference in rebounding margin (-5.9) and 18th in foul shooting percentage (.483).
 
• Clarion's offense has been evenly spread out through the opening 11 games of the year with five players having scored at least 8.0 points per game in Celeste Ryman (9.6), Emily Hegedus (9.5), Ke'Airah (8.7), Yndiah Bobo (8.6) and Jada Smith (8.4).
 
• Smith also pulls down 8.4 rebounds a game. Bobo averaged 16.5 points per game in Clarion's two contests against The Rock a season ago.
 
UP NEXT
Slippery Rock continues its stretch of four games in eight days when it returns home to host Cal U 5:30 p.m. Jan. 6 at Morrow Field House. The game will be the third home contest of the year for SRU.
 
 

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