PAINESVILLE, Ohio – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team lost a non-conference road game to Lake Erie College, 103-82, Wednesday at the Osborne Athletic & Wellness Center in Painesville, Ohio.
 
Slippery Rock returns home with a 2-5 overall record while Lake Erie exits the day at a near perfect 7-1 in the early stages of the 2024-25 season.
 
Four of the eight Rock players to see the floor Wednesday finished in double figures led by a 25-point, four-assist, four-steal, one-block performance from Maceo Austin.
 
Ike Herster also eclipsed the 20-point threshold for the third time in the last four games with 22 alongside four rebounds and a career-high four steals.
 
Jomo Goings (14) and Sheick Samoura (11) joined Austin and Herster as The Rock's leading scorers with Goings also collecting three steals.
 
O'Meech Wilson grabbed five rebounds and blocked one shot while Bobby Clifford dealt out three assists to round out SRU's top performers.

Lake Erie, which shot 56.3 percent (40-of-71) from the field overall, converted 13 of its 25 3-point attempts. The Storm also held a +18 (38-20) rebounding margin including 16 offensive rebounds which were parlayed into 21 second chance points.
 
As a team, Slippery Rock shot a season-best 51.7 percent (30-of-58) from the field overall despite making only 3-of-17 shots from 3-point range. Additionally, SRU was 19-for-22 (.864) at the foul line.
 
In what was often a sloppy contest, The Rock and Storm combined for 47 turnovers over the 40-minute game.

Lake Erie effectively put the game away early with a 13-4 run over the opening three minutes of the game. SRU spent the remainder of the first half unsuccessfully trying to catch the Storm, which grew their lead to as many as 18 points late in the half before taking a 49-34 lead into the break.
 
Both teams shot extradentary well from the field in the first half as LEC connected on 52 percent (21-for-40) of its field goal attempts while SRU knocked down an even 50 percent (14-for-28) of its shots.
 
However, the difference came from long range where the Storm were 6-for-12 compared to 1-of-9 showing from 3-point territory for The Rock as well as on the glass with Lake Erie grabbing eight offensive rebounds - that resulted in 13 second-chance points – as part of a +8 first half rebounding margin.
 
A comeback was not in the cards for SRU as Lake Erie closed out the victory by stretching its lead to as many as 36 in the second half on the way to its 21-point victory. The Storm shot 61 percent in the final 20 minutes, including a 7-of-13 performance from 3-point range.
 
Cameron Johnson scored a team-high 18 points to lead five Lake Erie players in double figures Wednesday.
 
Slippery Rock returns home to host USC Beaufort 3 p.m. Saturday at Morrow Field House.





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