SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team earned a hard-fought Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference home victory over West Chester University Sunday, 86-81, at Morrow Field House.
 
Slippery Rock exits the opening two months of the regular season with a stellar 9-2 overall record and a perfect 5-0 mark in PSAC games. In addition to sitting first in the PSAC West standings, SRU is also tied with West Liberty University for the longest active winning streak in the Atlantic Region.
 
West Chester finishes the weekend with a 7-3 overall record including a 2-3 mark in league competition.
 
Saturday's game was a tight matchup for all 40 minutes as neither team led by more than six at any point in the contest. Overall, the bout featured 22 lead changes, four of which occurred in the final five minutes of regulation.
 
With the game tied at 76-76 and 3:31 left to play, Dylan Ahearn, who entered the game as an injury replacement, calmly made a pair of free throws to put SRU ahead 78-76 before West Chester went on a mini 5-2 spurt to re-take the lead, 81-80, with 90 seconds remaining.
 
Undeterred, Slippery Rock battled back to close the game out with five straight points. First, Bobby Clifford converted the go-ahead layup on an Amante Britt pass with 39 seconds left before Frankie Hughes and Tyler Frederick converted two layups apiece in the final 20 seconds to seal the win.
 
SRU's defense forced West Chester to miss its final four shots over the last minute of regulation.
 
Despite being held scoreless and playing just two minutes in the first half due to foul trouble, Jonathan McFall still finished with a game-high 21 points courtesy of a brilliant second half. McFall, who shot 8-of-10 from the field overall and 5-of-5 at the foul line, also collected six rebounds and one steal.
 
Fresh off of his first double-double of the year, Hughes scored 19 points, pulled down four rebounds and made a game-best three steals.
 
Clifford and Britt also finished in double figures for The Rock with Clifford posting a career-high 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting overall, and a perfect 3-for-3 from distance, to go with six rebounds and a block while Britt tallied 10 points, five assists, one steal and one block.
 
Lashon Lindsey came off the bench to score nine points, corral four rebounds and dish out two assists before fouling out. Frederick produced five rebounds, six points and one steal. Ahearn rounded out The Rock's top contributors with five points, all of which came at the free throw line.
 
Slippery Rock concluded the game shooting 46.2 percent (30-of-65) from the field, 40 percent (8-of-20) from 3-point range and 81.8 percent (18-of-22) at the foul line. SRU forced West Chester into 19 turnovers which led to 21 points.
 
The Rock and West Chester finished with 34 rebounds apiece with SRU parlaying 15 offensive rebounds into 17 second chance points.
 
West Chester left Morrow Field House shooting 48.3 percent (28-of-58) from the field overall, 31.8 percent (7-of-22) from 3-point territory and 75 percent (18-of-24) at the free throw line. Kyle McGee led four Golden Rams in double figures with 17 points.
 
SRU now pauses for the holiday break before returning to Morrow Field House 7:30 p.m. Jan. 5 to host Pitt-Johnstown.
 
 
 
 
 

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