ERIE, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team snapped a streak a nine straight road losses in its series against Gannon University with a convincing 78-68 victory over the Golden Knights Saturday night at the Hammermill Center.
 
The Rock picked up their first road win at Gannon since March of 2013 and did it by leading for more than 38 minutes and trailing for just 13 seconds after the first bucket of the game. Slippery Rock improves to 14-12 overall and 10-10 in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference games and keeps alive a chance at improving to the No. 5 seed in the PSAC West for the upcoming conference tournament (more info at bottom of recap). Gannon slips to 13-12 overall and 12-9 in PSAC games and stays currently in the fifth position in the PSAC West.
 
Slippery Rock's performance Saturday night was a significant improvement from the first meeting this winter against Gannon, in which The Rock made just five field goals in the second half and finished with season-lows of 49 points and 28.3 percent shooting in a 69-49 loss. The script was much different Saturday, as SRU nearly matched its previous scoring output in the first half alone and shot better than 55 percent for the game.
 
The Rock knocked down 7-of-11 attempts from the 3-point line in the first half and shot 61.5 percent from the field on the way to building a 42-32 lead at halftime. SRU used a 17-4 run late in the period to open up as much as a 15-point lead before Gannon cut it back to 10 at the break.
 
The Golden Knights chipped away at the advantage and got it down to four points at 58-54 with 10:20 to play, but Slippery Rock answered with back-to-back 3-pointers from Donovan Walker to extend the lead back to double digits. Gannon would get no closer than eight points over the final 10 minutes of the game.
 
The Rock shot 57.1 percent from the field (32-of-56), 50.0 percent from 3-point (10-of-20) and 44.4 percent from the free throw line after making four of just nine attempts at the charity stripe. Gannon outrebounded SRU by a 39-28 margin, but was outscored 40-28 in the paint.
 
Slippery Rock got points from all eight players that saw time in the game Saturday, including double-digit scoring efforts from four players. Deontae Robertson led the way with 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting. Micah Till added 16 points, six rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks on the way to taking over sole possession of fifth place on the all-time scoring ledger at SRU with 1,437 career points in just 70 games.
 
Lashon Lindsey scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds and Jared Armstrong scored 12 points and handed out five assists. Walker tallied nine points on a perfect 3-for-3 effort from the 3-point line. Will Bounds chipped in five points, Amante Britt scored four points and handed out three assists and Revelinio Tholel scored two points.
 
The Golden Knights shot 42.9 percent from the field (27-of-63), 26.7 percent from 3-point (4-of-15) and 66.7 percent at the free throw line (10-of-15). Frank Webb Jr. finished with a game-high 23 points and 13 rebounds and DeAnte Cisero scored 21 points and grabbed nine rebounds as that duo tallied 44 of Gannon's 68 total points.
 
Slippery Rock will look for its fourth consecutive win when it travels to Edinboro Wednesday night for a 7:30 p.m. tip. The Rock will then close the regular season at home next Saturday against Mercyhurst at 3 p.m.
 
PLAYOFF SCENARIO UPDATED
Slippery Rock and Gannon will be the fifth and sixth seeds in the PSAC West, but the order is yet to be determined. Gannon can lock up the fifth spot with a win over Cal U in its final game next week, but if Cal U were to win that game and SRU were to win both of its games next week, it would send the two teams to the league's tiebreaker criteria, where SRU would come out on top and end up as the No. 5 seed.
 


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