INDIANA, Pa. The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team never trailed as it extended its winning streak to three games and completed a season sweep of Indiana University (Pa.) with a 70-57 road win Saturday.
 
Coupled with its 52-48 home victory over IUP earlier this season, SRU has now completed its first season sweep of the Crimson Hawks since the 2002 season.
 
The win improves Slippery Rock's record to 15-11 overall and 10-10 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division. With only two games remaining in the regular season, SRU has now secured its first winning record since 2001-02. Following the loss, Indiana now moves to 18-8 overall and 13-8 in the conference.
 
Saturday's win also kept SRU's PSAC Tournament hopes alive as it will enter the final week of the season tied for the all-important sixth spot in the PSAC West standings with Mercyhurst University.
 
The top six teams in the PSAC West standings at the conclusion of the season qualify for the conference tournament and The Rock owns the tiebreaker over Mercyhurst courtesy of its season-sweep of the Lakers.
 
The Rock darted out to a 9-2 run to open the contest and compiled a 27-10 advantage to end the first quarter while holding the Crimson Hawks to only nine second quarter points to head into halftime leading 38-19.
 
Slippery Rock held Indiana to a season-lows of 19 first half points and a 26.1 shooting percentage over the opening 20 minutes of competition.
 
Coming out of the break, Slippery Rock extended its advantage to the largest of the contest at 22 points (41-19) via a made 3-pointer by Jordan Kauffman with 9:26 left in the third quarter.
 
SRU and IUP went on to pay an evenly matched third quarter with the Crimson Hawks outscoring The Rock by only one point over the remainder of the period to trail 53-35 entering the final 10 minutes of regulation.
 
Indiana rallied in the fourth quarter, cutting the Slippery Rock lead to as little as seven points in the final minute of the game. However, a pair of made free throws from Kelley McKnight and back-to-back layups for Isabellah Middleton and Jada Ward over the final 40 seconds of regulation sealed a 70-57 Rock victory.
 
Slippery Rock was led by Deleah Gibson who tallied her fifth 20-point game over SRU's last seven contests as she went for a game-high 22 points to go along with six rebounds. Gibson continued her efficient shooting as SRU's long-range specialist was 4-of-7 from 3-point range.
 
With her four made three pointers, Gibson has now advanced to 12th in program history for career 3-pointers past Melissa McKavish (1999-03) with a total of 88.
 
Joining Gibson and scoring 20 points over the win was Isabellah Middleton who rounded out her stat line with eight rebounds, four steals and two assists while shooting 8-of-16 from the field.
 
Ward came off the bench to provide SRU with solid minutes as she tallied 11 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals. Kennedy Middleton registered seven points, three assists, two rebounds, two assists and one block in just one half of play.
 
Rounding out the Slippery Rock leaders was Kaylin Venick (4 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals), Kauffman (3 points, 1 steal, 1 assist) and McKnight (3 points. 5 rebounds).
 
The Rock finished the contest shooting 49.1 percent (27-of-55) from the field, 42.9 percent (6-of-14) from 3-point range and 55.6 percent (10-of-18) from the foul line. SRU out rebounded IUP by a +13 margin (40-27).
 
The Crimson Hawks shot 39.6 percent from the floor (21-of-53), 22.7 percent (5-of-22) from long range and 76.9 percent (10-of-13) from the charity stripe. Alana Cardona scored a team-best 16 points to go along with four rebounds, two steals, two blocks and one assist for IUP.
 
Slippery Rock closes out the regular season with a pair of home contests at Morrow Field House starting with a 5:30 p.m. contest versus Clarion on Feb. 22. Slippery Rock defeated the Golden Eagles, 77-68, in Clarion earlier in the year.
 
 





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