EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team suffered its third loss of the season in a 50-42 decision to Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Eastern Division competitor East Stroudsburg University on the road Friday.
 
The loss moves The Rock's record to 8-3 overall and 3-2 in the conference while the Warriors improve to 7-4 on the year and 3-2 in the PSAC.
 
Slippery Rock struggled to find its momentum from the floor Friday as it shot a season-low 29.3 percent (17-of-58) from the field overall while being held to its lowest scoring output of the season.
 
SRU was led by Kennedy Middleton, who tallied her sixth double-double of the season by way of a 12-point, 12-rebounds performance in addition to making two steals, one assist and one block.
 
Isabellah Middleton fell just one point shy of a double-double as she collected nine points, 10 rebounds, three steals and one assist. Deleah Gibson scored an identical nine points to go along with two steals, one rebound and one assist.
 
Kelley McKnight and Kaylin Venick ended the contest with five points each while McKnight tacked on four rebounds to her stat line.
 
Rounding out Rock leaders were Jada Ward with two points, two rebounds, two steals and one assist and Arianna Mitchell with six rebounds two blocks and one steal.
 
Trailing 15-9 after the opening 10 minutes, Slippery Rock rallied throughout the second quarter by utilizing a 10-1 run to overcome the East Stroudsburg lead and take a two-point advantage of its own at 25-23 going into the halftime break.
 
However, ESU dominated the third quarter holding SRU to only four points while scoring 14 itself to reclaim the lead (37-29) entering the final 10 minutes of competition.
 
Any thoughts of a late comeback were further dashed as the Warriors extended their advantage to as many as 13 points with 2:26 remaining before securing a 50-42 victory over Slippery Rock.
 
For the game, SRU shot 29.3 percent (17-of-58) from the floor, 40 percent (4-of-10) from long range and 50 percent (4-of-8) from the foul line.
 
ESU ended the contest shooting 31.1 percent (19-of-61) from the floor, 18.2 percent (2-of-11) from 3-point range and 55.6 percent (10-of-18) from the free throw line. The Warriors held advantages over The Rock in rebounds (46-42) while forcing SRU into 19 turnovers and making 15 miscues of its own.
 
Ryan Weise led the Warriors with a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds while making four steals and four assists.
 
Slippery Rock opens divisional action when it hosts Gannon University 5:30 p.m. Jan. 4 at Morrow Field House.








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