JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team dropped a close Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division contest on the road, 72-68, Saturday at Pitt-Johnstown.
 
The defeat drops The Rock's record to 12-5 overall and 6-5 in the PSAC West while the Mountain Cats improve to 12-5 overall and 8-3 in league games.
 
Slippery Rock and Pitt-Johnstown traded runs throughout the duration of the game as the evenly-matched teams exchanged the lead eight times in addition to five ties resulting in a 63-63 score with 2:47 left in regulation.
 
Pitt-Johnstown proceeded to take a five-point advantage by way of Drew Magestro 3-pointer and a pair of foul shots from Jared Jakubick, giving the Mountain Cats a 68-63 lead at the 1:38 mark in the period.
 
Amante Britt answered the run for The Rock with a successful layup and an accompanying foul shot to make it a two-point game only for UPJ's Andrew Shull to hit a jumper on the ensuing possession to push the Mountain Cats' advantage back to two possessions.
 
Coming out of a timeout, Jonathan McFall once again brought The Rock within a bucket, thanks to a jumper in the paint, making it a 70-68 game with 50 seconds left. SRU then forced a Pitt-Johnstown miss with Khalid Gates grabbing the rebound and calling timeout to setup a potential go-ahead possession for SRU.
 
However, the Mountain Cats were able to thwart The Rock's hopes of a game-tying, or winning, shot, as Shull intercepted a pass which forced Slippery Rock to foul. He went on to convert both free throws to secure the win.
 
McFall scored a team-high 20 points for The Rock after going 8-for-12 from the field and 4-of-8 from 3-point range. Britt closed the night with 12 points, six assists and no turnovers.
 
Bobby Clifford had a solid night as well with 10 points and five rebounds while Gates battled through foul trouble for much of the game on the way to a 10-point, six-rebound, three-block showing over just 22 minutes.
 
Lashon Lindsey had eight points, six rebounds and two steals with Jomo Goings and Ahmad Galimore rounding out SRU's top contributors with four points each.
 
For the game, Slippery Rock shot 45.6 percent (26-of-57) from the field overall, 33.3 percent (8-of-24) from 3-point range and a near perfect 88.9 percent (8-of-9) at the foul line.
Pitt-Johnstown shot 48 percent (24-of-50) from the field overall and 41.7 percent (5-of-12) from 3-point distance in addition to enjoying 21 foul shots, 19 of which were made for a 90.5 percent effort. John Paul Kromka paced UPJ with 23 points, six rebounds and three assists.
 
UPJ held a slight 30-28 edge in rebounding while both teams committed just 10 turnovers.
 
Slippery Rock returns home to host Lock Haven University for its final league crossover game against a PSAC Eastern Division team this season 7:30 p.m. Jan. 23.
 




To stay up to date with all that happens at The Rock, follow our official athletic communication accounts on Twitter (@Rock_Athletics), Facebook (RockAthletics) and Instagram (RockAthletics).