MANSFIELD, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team played a near flawless second half to earn an 82-67 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference victory at Mansfield University Friday.
 
SRU has now won four of its last five games to improve its record to 4-2 on the year overall and 2-0 in league games while Mansfield drops to 1-6 overall and 0-1 in the PSAC with the loss.
 
The Rock and Mounties played to a 30-30 tie in the first half before Slippery Rock pulled away down the stretch by outscoring Mansfield by 15 points over the final 20 minutes on the way to the road victory.
 
Tyler Frederick played the best game of his Slippery Rock career to lead SRU Friday as the senior posted his third double-double of the season with 27 points and 18 rebounds in addition to blocking one shot over 27 minutes. Frederick went 12-for-17 from the field overall including a perfect 1-of-1 showing from three-point range.
 
Jonathan McFall also posted a double-double, his first of the season, with 15 points and 10 rebounds all the while passing out two assists, blocking one shot and making one steal.
 
All five SRU starters finished in double figures Friday as Amante Britt chipped in 12 points while Bobby Clifford and Frankie Hughes compiled 11 and 10 points, respectively. Britt and Hughes both had three assists with Hughes also pulling down six rebounds. In addition to his scoring efforts, Clifford closed out a solid all-around showing by tallying seven rebounds, two assists and one block.
 
The Rock's reserves were led by Lashon Lindsey (four assists), Nik Cazacu (four points, three rebounds, one block, one steal) and Dylan Ahearn (three points).
 
After a sluggish start, Slippery Rock ended any thoughts of a home victory that the upset-minded Mounties had by coming out of the halftime break and going on a 24-13 run over the first 10 minutes of the second half to pull ahead of Mansfield 54-43. Clifford and McFall scored seven points apiece over the spurt.
 
The remainder of the contest belonged to Frederick, who closed out the win for SRU by posting 15 points and six rebounds over the game's final 10 minutes en route to The Rock's third double-digit victory of the year. As a team, SRU shot 56.8 percent in the second half.
 
Slippery Rock concluded the night shooting 47.8 percent (33-of-69) from the field overall and hitting five 3-pointers. After committing nine miscues in the opening half, SRU re-grouped coming out of the break to finish the game with just 14 total turnovers.
 
SRU dominated the glass in the form of a 51-27 advantage in rebounding. Of The Rock's impressive rebounding total, 17 came on the offensive glass.
 
For the game, Mansfield shot 39 percent (23-of-59) from the field overall while making five 3-pointers and going 16-of-21 (76.2 percent) from the foul line and committing just 10 turnovers. Justice Smith had 19 points, nine rebounds and two steals to lead MU.
 
Slippery Rock continues its tour of the PSAC East 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Bloomsburg University.
 
 
 

 
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