ERIE, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team had its three-game winning streak snapped in a 77-63 loss to Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division leader No. 23 Gannon University on the road Wednesday.
 
With the loss, The Rock's record moves to 12-9 overall and 7-8 in league competition while the Golden Knights improve to 20-3 overall and 12-3 in the division.
 
SRU was led by Deleah Gibson, with her third 20-point game over The Rock's last four contests, as she registered 23 points, five rebounds, three assists and one steal while going 4-of-4 from the free throw line.
 
Kennedy Middleton paced Slippery Rock on defense with 11 rebounds to go along with seven points, four assists and one steal.
 
Four players registered six points apiece in Alyssa Gillin, Bella Long, Isabellah Middleton and Jada Ward. Gillin added five rebounds, one block and one steal to her stat line while Middleton tallied three steals, two rebounds and two assists and Ward tacked on two steals, one rebound and one assist.
 
Rounding out Slippery Rock's leaders were Kelley McKnight (4 points), Emily Venick (3 points) and Kaylin Venick (3 rebounds, 2 points).
 
The Rock and Golden Knights played an evenly contested first half that saw six lead changes before Slippery Rock utilized a 9-4 run to close out the opening 20 minutes leading Gannon 36-32.
 
Slippery Rock's impressive first half showing ended with its second highest shooting percentage of the year at 51.7 (15-of-29) in addition to Gibson (2-of-3) Gillin (2-of-3) and Long (2-of-2) all finding success from long range in the first two quarters. 
 
Coming out of the break, SRU and GU proceeded to trade baskets for the opening half of the third quarter with neither team leading by more than five points.
 
Gannon went on to make five three pointers over the final 4:41 of the third quarter and out-score The Rock by 10 points to take a 59-53 advantage into the final 10 minutes of regulation.
 
The Golden Knights continued to expand their lead over Slippery Rock throughout the fourth quarter while holding SRU to only 10 points en route to a 77-63 Gannon victory.
 
For the game, SRU shot 40.7 percent (22-of-54) from the floor, 40 percent (8-of-20) from long range and 61.1 percent (11-of-18) from the foul line. The Rock forced the Golden Knights into 15 turnovers while making 13 miscues of their own.
 
GU ended the contest shooting 50 percent (31-of-62) from the floor, 42.4 percent (14-of-33) from 3-point range and 50 percent (1-of-2) from the free throw line. The Golden Knights held advantages over The Rock in rebounds (36-31) while Samantha Pirosko led all scorers with 23 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists.
 
The Rock returns home to host Seton Hill University 1 p.m. Saturday for their Black History Month game at Morrow Field House. Earlier this year the Griffins defeated SRU 76-58 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.






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