GREENSBURG, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team lost on the road to Seton Hill University, 84-77, Wednesday in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division competition.
The loss snaps Slippery Rock's two-game winning streak and drops its record to 11-3 overall and 5-3 in the PSAC. Seton Hill improves to 8-6 overall and 3-5 in league contests following the win.
The Griffins earned the home victory thanks in no small part to converting 12-of-27 3-point attempts on the offensive end of the court while their pesky zone defense led to scoring 21 points off 15 Slippery Rock turnovers. Seton Hill also accounted for 14 offensive rebounds; the third highest total surrendered by The Rock this season.
Leading The Rock Wednesday was
Jomo Goings, who came off the bench to score a career-high 18 points in addition to totaling four rebounds, one block and one steal. Goings, who was a perfect 4-for-4 at the foul line, went 6-for-8 from the field overall and 2-of-4 from 3-point range.
Bobby Clifford matched his season-high in scoring with 14 points while
Amante Britt also finished in double figures following a 12-point, four-steal performance.
Wednesday's contest marked the 100th collegiate game, and start, in Britt's career. He becomes just one of three players in program history to start at least 100 games along with Myron Brown (111 / 1987-91) and Troy Mild (100 / 1980-84).
Khalid Gates just missed out on a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds.
Jonathan McFall scored six points, pulled in seven rebounds and blocked two shots while
Lashon Lindsey rounded out The Rock's starters with five points, five rebounds and one block.
Joining Goings as SRU's top reserve performers were
Ahmad Galimore and
Alex Griggs. Galimore produced six points, nine rebounds and three assists while Griggs added seven points and three steals.
Trailing 9-2 early on, Slippery Rock spent the majority of the opening half cutting away at the Seton Hill lead as SRU was able to tie the game on two occasions before a deep Lindsey jumper gave The Rock their first lead of the game at 24-23 with 6:25 left in the half.
SRU quickly grew its lead to seven points over the next two minutes before the Griffins closed the opening 20 minutes on an 11-2 run to take a 34-32 lead into the break.
Just as they ended the first half, the Griffins began the second half with a barrage of five 3-pointers over the opening five minutes to push their lead out to 50-40.
Slippery Rock appeared poised to get back into the game as The Rock was able to answer SHU's run with a 14-5 spurt of their own that trimmed Seton Hill's lead down to 55-54 with 10:39 remaining in regulation. Five Rock players scored points during the run including Britt, Clifford and Lindsey with one 3-pointer apiece.
However, any hopes of SRU comeback were put to rest when Seton Hill proceeded to hold The Rock scoreless for the following two minutes while scoring 11 unanswered points to build up a 12-point lead Slippery Rock could never truly threaten en route to an 84-77 Griffin win.
Slippery Rock closed the game shooting 40.6 percent (28-of-69) from the field overall, 42.9 percent (9-of-21) from 3-point range and 85.7 percent (12-of-14) at the foul line. SRU held a slight +3 (45-42) rebounding margin over SHU while turning its 14 offensive rebounds into 20 second chance points.
Seton Hill shot 44.6 percent (29-of-65) from the field overall to go with its aforementioned strong 3-point shooting performance. The Griffins were able to hold onto the win despite making just 50 percent (14-of-28) of its free throw attempts.
Sean Dillon scored a game-high 20 points along with four steals and Samuel Tabe added a 19-point, nine-rebound effort to lead Seton Hill.
Slippery Rock continues its two-game road swing when it travels to Erie, Pennsylvania to face Mercyhurst University 3 p.m. Saturday.
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