New/Sortable Box Score SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team erased a six-point deficit to force overtime and earn a 75-73 victory over Mercyhurst University in a key contest that kept its Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament chances alive Wednesday at Morrow Field House.
 
With the win The Rock snaps its 10-game losing streak and improves to 11-13 overall and 6-12 in the PSAC West while Mercyhurst falls to 7-17 overall and 5-13 in the conference. With four games remaining in the regular season Slippery Rock is still mathematically alive to earn a PSAC Tournament berth.
 
Slippery Rock has now played in back-to-back overtime games for the first time since the 2013-14 season.  
 
SRU was led by four starters who ended the night with double-digit points in Jamiyah Johnson, who had 19 in addition to eight rebounds, one steal and one block. Deleah Gibson scored a career-high 18 points as well as compiling three assists and two rebounds.
 
Rounding out the leaders were Kennedy Middleton who tallied 17 points to go along with nine rebounds, three steals, two assists and one block and Daeja Quick with 11 points, six rebounds, three steals, two assists and one block.
 
Kelley McKnight came off the bench to provide Slippery Rock with key minutes down the stretch on the way to finishing the game with five rebounds and three points.
 
Slippery Rock dominated the majority of the first half and held an 11-point lead with 3:16 left to play in the second quarter, but the Lakers went on a 9-0 run that included a buzzer beater 3-pointer by Julia Buchman to send SRU into halftime leading by just two points at 34-32.
 
Coming out of the break, The Rock got off to another exhilarated start with a 12-0 run before Mercyhurst went on a 12-3 spurt of its own to close the third trailing 49-46. The fourth quarter consisted of SRU and the Lakers trading baskets with Mercyhurst eventually pulling ahead 62-56 with 2:13 remaining in regulation.
 
Undeterred, Slippery Rock ended regulation strong with Quick spearheading the comeback as she tallied a steal and four points over the final seconds of regulation highlighted by a game-tying layup with seven seconds to tie the game at 65-65 and force overtime.
 
SRU and the Lakers traded two-point leads through the majority of the overtime period until two free throws by Kennedy Middleton with 1:46 left to play tied the score 70-70. The Rock went on to outscore Mercyhurst 5-3 en route to the Slippery Rock victory.
 
As a team, SRU shot 40.9 percent (27-of-66) from the floor, 35.3 percent (6-of-17) from long range and 75 percent (15-of-20) from the foul line. The Rock forced the Lakers into 15 turnovers while matching their season-low of just 10 miscues of their own in addition to leading in points in the paint (40-30).
 
Mercyhurst ended the night shooting 40 percent (26-of-65) from the floor, 40 percent (8-of-20) from 3-point range and 72.2 percent (13-of-18) from the charity stripe. MU outrebounded The Rock 44-39 while also leading in points off turnovers (18-16).
 
Slippery Rock remains home for its Breast Cancer Awareness game against PSAC West opponent Gannon University 1 p.m. Saturday.
 
 

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