SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team continues its season-long six-game road trip when it travels Hawaii for a pair of non-conference games.
 
Slippery Rock will first play at Hawaii Pacific University 10 p.m. (EST) Sunday followed by a 10 p.m. (EST) contest against Chaminade University on Nov. 27.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
Video and in-game statistics for both the Hawaii Pacific and Chaminade games will be available at the below links.
 
GAME 3 DETAILS
Opponent: Hawaii Pacific
Date: Sunday – 10 p.m. (EST)
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Venue: The Shark Tank
Tickets: Link
Video: Link ($)
Live Stats: Link
In-game Updates: Twitter/X (@Rock_Athletics)
All-Time Series: First Meeting
Last Played: N/A
 
GAME 4 DETAILS
Opponent: Chaminade
Date: Monday (Nov. 27) – 10 p.m. (EST)
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Venue: McCabe Gymnasium
Tickets: Link
Video: Link
Live Stats: Link
In-game Updates: Twitter/X (@Rock_Athletics)
All-Time Series: First Meeting
Last Played: N/A
 
SERIES HISTORY
The Hawaii trip will mark the first games for The Rock against both Chaminade and Hawaii Pacific.
 

TALE OF THE TAPE
STAT	SRU	HPU	CU
Scoring*	81.0	66.0	68.4
Opp. Scoring*	78.5	66.3	79.6
FG%	.447	.427	.380
Opp. FG%	.439	.452	.479
3-Point FG%	.386	.342	.291
Opp. 3-Point FG%	.435	.391	.286
FT%	.714	.731	.812
Rebounds*	37.5	31.0	29.2
Rebounding Margin	+1.5	-1.3	-15.0
Turnovers*	16.0	11.3	10.4
Opp. Turnovers*	17.5	14.0	14.8
Turnover Margin	+1.5	+2.8	+4.4
Steals*	6.5	5.8	8.2
Blocks*	5.5	4.5	3.8
* per game stats

 
SLIPPERY ROCK PRIMER
• Roster: Link
• Stats: Link
• Overall Record: 1-1
• Home Record: 1-0
• Away Record: 0-1
• Streak: L1
• Head Coach: Ian Grady | Sixth season (69-49, .581)
 
LAST TIME OUT
Slippery Rock suffered its first loss of the season in an 86-62 road decision Tuesday at Daemen University.

HEADING BACK TO HAWAII 
Slippery Rock will be making its second trip to the 50th state in the program's long and storied history.
 
The Rock's first trip to Hawaii came all the way back in the 1987-88 season when head coach Bob Barlett's team played three games at the Hawaii Classic against BYU-Hawaii, Concordia and Bryant. The 1987-88 team finished the year 14-14 and featured what is arguably the program's greatest recruiting class of all-time in Myron Brown, C. Russell, Bill Johnson, Kevin Jones and Jeff Loughry.
 
A LONG ROAD AHEAD
SRU's games against Hawaii Pacific and Chaminade will mark the halfway point of a long road trip that spans from Amherst, New York to Honolulu, Hawaii and back again.
 
Following the Chaminade contest, SRU will fly back to eastern Pennsylvania for a pair of games against West Chester and Millersville. After returning home in early December and focusing on their fall semester final exams, Slippery Rock will officially conclude its six-game road trip Dec. 14 at Davis & Elkins college in Elkins, West Virginia.
 
SRU will play finally play its second home game of the season Dec. 18 against Shepherd. Slippery Rock will end up going 33 days between home games – the program's longest stretch of days between dates at Morrow Field House during the same season since 2010-11 when it went 40 days between home games, both of which were against Ohio Eastern (Nov. 19 – Dec 29).

BOUNCE-BACK GAME ON DECK
Non-conference losses by Slippery Rock under head coach Ian Grady are not common and consecutive losses against non-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference foes have been even more rare.
 
Slippery Rock is a solid 18-13 (.581) in non-conference games dating back to Grady's first season leading the program in 2018-19.
 
When Slippery Rock does drop a non-conference game it is almost always followed up with a win as SRU has lost back-to-back games outside of the PSAC just twice in the last six years with those four losses all coming within Grady's first five games as a head coach. Since then, Slippery Rock has won 17 of its 26 non-conference games.
 
HAVE TO WIN ON THE GLASS
Simply put, when The Rock rebounds well they win and when they don't they lose.
 
Since the 2018-19 season, Slippery Rock is 52-17 (.754) in games when it finishes with an advantage in rebounding and 4-3 when rebound totals are even. However, in games over that time frame when SRU loses the battle of the boards it is just 13-29 (.309).
 
That trend has held true this year as The Rock held a +8 rebound margin in the season-opening win against West Virginia Wesleyan while being -5 at Daemen.

THE ROCK ROTATION
• Through two games, reigning PSAC West Athlete of the Week Maceo Austin has averaged a team-best 19.5 points per game while shooting an effective 56.5 percent from the field overall all the while providing The Rock with 4.0 assists, 3.0 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 1.0 steals a contest.
 
• Redshirt freshman Sheick Samoura has been a model of consistency for Slippery Rock over his first two collegiate games as he has scored 13 points on 44.4 percent shooting and grabbed three rebounds in both contests.
 
• Ike Herster has served as SRU's third leading scorer in each of the first two games this season. He enters the Hawaii portion of the road trip with per game averages of 12.0 points and 3.5 rebounds.  
 
• Lashon Lindsey nearly averages a double-double at 11.5 ppg and 8.0 rpg. Lindsey accomplishes his scoring total on extremely efficient shooting percentages of .667 (10-of-15) from the field overall and .600 (3-of-5) from long range.
 
• In addition to being SRU's fourth athlete to average double figures scoring per game (10.0), Jomo Goings has also supplied The Rock with a team-high four steals to go with 6.5 rebounds per game which ranks second on the team behind Lindsey.
 
• Point guard Luke Howes guides the offense with 4.0 assists per game while committing just five total turnovers over his first 55 minutes on the court in a Rock uniform. After being held scoreless against West Virginia Wesleyan, Howes went for six points against Daemen.
 
• Bobby Clifford has come off the bench in each of SRU's first two games and has made an impact on the glass in both contests thanks in no small part to a team-best seven offensive rebounds. Clifford also scores 5.0 ppg.
 
• Ja'Mier Fletcher, a Division I transfer from Wagner and one of The Rock's few true interior options, made his Slippery Rock debut against Daemen with two points and two rebounds over nine minutes. Fletcher's role figures to continually grow as the season goes on.
 
• While it's still extremely early in 2023-24, Slippery Rock currently leads the PSAC, and ranks 10th in all of Division II, in blocks at 5.5 per game. Six Rock athletes have already posted at least one rejection with Austin (4) and Nik Cazacu (3) leading the way.
 
• SRU also enters its third game of the season ranked in the top four in the 18-team PSAC in 3-point percentage (2nd / .386), 3-pointers per game (2nd / 8.5), bench scoring (3rd / 32.5), scoring (4th / 81.0), offensive rebounding (4th / 14.0) and free throws made per game (4th / 17.5).
 
HAWAII PACIFIC PRIMER
• Roster: Link
• Stats: Link
• Overall Record: 2-2
• Home Record: 0-0
• Away Record: 2-2
• Streak: W2
• Head Coach: Jesse Nakanishi | 1st season at HPU (2-2, .500)
 
SHARK STAT LEADERS (Per Game)
SCORING: Melo Sanchez (18.0), Diggy Winbush (11.0)
FG%: Winbush (.526), Maj Dusanic (.516)
3PT%: Sanchez (.367), Josh Niusulu (.250)
ASSISTS: Dusanic (3.3)
REBOUNDS: Sanchez (6.3)
STEALS: Niusulu (1.8)
BLOCKS: Matthew Van Komen (2.5)
 
SCOUTING THE SHARKS
• Hawaii Pacific welcomes The Rock with a 2-2 overall record. After starting the year with losses to Alaska Fairbanks (69-64) and Alaska Anchorage (65-50), HPU rebounded with consecutive wins over Western Washington (83-67) and Simon Fraser (67-64).
 
• The Sharks are led by first-year head coach Jesse Nakanishi, who previously served as the team's associate head coach.
 
• In four games under Nakanishi, HPU has been a defensive oriented team as it has held opponents under 70 points every game. Offensively, the Sharks average 66 points per game while shooting 47.7 percent from the field overall and taking care of the basketball to the tune of just 11.3 turnovers a game.
 
• Sophomore guard Melo Sanchez has shouldered the bulk of Hawaii Pacific's offensive load early on with per game averages of 18.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals. Sanchez averages 15 shot attempts per game and is hitting at a .373 percent rate. He has also made 11 of HPU's 25 successful 3-pointers on the year.
 
• Maj Dusanic (9.8) and Diggy Winbush (9.3) supplement Sanchez's offense with Dusanic also distributing 3.3 assists per game.
 
• Matthew Van Komen presents a potential matchup problem for The Rock. A former four-star recruit who began his career at Utah followed by a stay at Saint Mary's before landing at HPU, Van Komen is a 7-4 center who averages 2.0 blocks per game along with 7.8 ppg and 6.5 rpg.
 
CHAMINADE PRIMER
• Roster: Link
• Stats: Link
• Overall Record: 1-4
• Home Record: 0-1
• Away Record: 1-0
• Neutral Site Record: 0-3
• Streak: L3
• Last 5 Games: 1-4
• Head Coach: Eric Bovaird | 13th season at CU (177-153, .536)
 
SILVERSWORDS STAT LEADERS (Per Game)
SCORING: Isaac Amaral-Artharee (16.0), Jamir Thomas (15.6)
FG%: Thomas (.473), Scott Ator (.395)
3PT%: Thomas (.424), Amaral-Artharee (.357)
ASSISTS: Ross Reeves (5.2)
REBOUNDS: Ator (6.4)
STEALS: Reeves (1.6), Wyatt Lowell (1.6)
BLOCKS: Ator (1.4)
 
SCOUTING THE SILVERSWORDS
• Chaminade's 1-4 record is deceiving as two of its losses have come against No. 1 Kansas and No. 24 UCLA as part of the annual Maui Invitational which CU will conclude Wednesday against Syracuse.
 
• Against actual Division II competition, Chaminade is 1-2 with an 80-72 win over Alaska Fairbanks and a pair of close losses to Alaska Anchorage (77-72) and Hawai'i Hilo (90-86, OT).
 
• When squaring off with Division II opponents, Chaminade averages 79.3 ppg on a .432 overall field goal percentage while making nearly nine 3-pointers per game and committing just 8.7 turnovers a contest.
 
• Defensively, the Silverswords have allowed 79.7 ppg in its three D2 games with opponents shooting 44 percent from the field overall, but just 29.6 percent from 3-point range. Rebounding has been an issue in those games for Chaminade as it holds a -9.7 rebounding margin.
 
• One of the top scorers in program history, Isaac Amaral-Artharee has averaged 16.0 ppg on the year. Jamir Thomas is CU's second leading scorer at 15.6 ppg while Ross Reeves goes for 10.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.6 steals a night.
 
UP NEXT
Slippery Rock returns to the continental United States for back-to-back road Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference crossover games Dec 1 against West Chester University and Dec. 2 versus Millersville University.




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