ERIE, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team battled back from a 15-points deficit to earn a 67-65 victory over Mercyhurst University in its season finale on the road Saturday.
With the win Slippery Rock ends the season 12-16 overall and 7-15 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division. The 12 wins are tied for the second-highest win total by SRU over the last 16 years. With the loss Mercyhurst ends the year 9-19 overall and 7-15 in the conference.
The Rock's efforts were led by the senior duo of
Jamiyah Johnson and
Daeja Quick. Johnson ended the contest with a double-double of 23 points and 15 rebounds while completing her stat line with two steals. Seven of Johnsons rebounds came on the offensive glass. Quick tallied 16 points, eight rebounds, two assists and one block.
Kennedy Middleton spearheaded the second half surge as she provided The Rock with 11 points, nine rebounds, and three steals.
Rounding out SRU's leaders were
Kelley McKnight (7 points, 3 rebounds),
Bella Long (5 points, 2 rebounds),
Anyah Curd (2 points, 3 rebounds, and
Kaylin Venick who drained her first collegiate 3-pointer in addition to having two rebounds.
The Lakers dominated the majority of the first half of the contest holding Slippery Rock to just nine points in the first quarter while scoring 20 of their own followed by an expansion of their lead to 15 points with 6:21 left to play in the second.
The senior duo of Johnson and Quick started the comeback campaign scoring 13 of SRU's 21 points in the second period while freshmen reserves McKnight and Venick came off the bench to tack on eight additional points cutting The Rock's deficit to 37-30 at halftime.
Coming out of the break, SRU used a 16-9 run over the Lakers to pull the score even at 46-46 before McKnight sunk a layup with 3:29 remaining in the third to give Slippery Rock its first lead since the opening minutes of the contest.
The Rock and Mercyhurst closed out the third quarter trading baskets with neither team leading by more than two points before Middleton knocked down a pair of free throws with 23 second reaming sending SRU into the final period with a 54-52 advantage.
The Lakers continued to try and chip away at the Slippery Rock lead by pulling even with The Rock five different times in the fourth quarter.
With the game tied at 65-65, it appeared as if Mercyhurst was going to be able to hold for the final shot. However, an exceptional hustle play by Middleton in which she dove for a loose ball on an errant Laker pass and in the process drew a foul to send her to the charity stripe where she drained a pair of free throws to give SRU a two-point lead with six seconds left to play.
The Lakers had one final chance to win the game, but a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Emily Shopene fell short as Slippery Rock completed the comeback.
As a team, The Rock shot 35.9 percent (23-of-64) from the floor overall, 33.3 percent (3-of-9) from 3-point range and 72 percent (18-of-25) from the foul line. SRU outrebounded the Lakers 42-30 in addition to holding advantages in second chance points (11-4) and fast break points (14-10).
Mercyhurst ended the contest shooting 39.4 percent (26-of-66) from the field overall, 28.6 percent (6-of-21) from long range and 87.5 percent (7-of-8) from the charity stripe. Despite the loss, the Lakers forced SRU into 16 turnovers while making 14 miscues of their own in addition to leading in points off turnovers (21-12) and points in the paint (38-34).
Saturday's game marked the final collegiate contests of Quick's and Johnson's careers. Quick leaves SRU ranked 12th in program history in assists (271), 12th in steals (123), 24th in points scored (840) and ninth in total minutes played (2,629). In her lone season at The Rock, Johnson, a graduate transfer, broke SRU's single-season rebounding record that had stood for the past 36 years.
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