KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team earned its second win in as many games following an 86-72 victory on the road Friday at Kutztown University.
 
The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference victory improves The Rock's record to 4-6 overall and 1-2 in league games while the Golden Bears fall to 3-5 overall and 0-2 inside the PSAC.
 
Friday's game was by and large never in doubt as The Rock ultimately led for 37:09 of a possible 40 minutes.
 
Slippery Rock enjoyed its best offensive showing of the season with season-highs in points, made field goals (33), field goal percentage (.532 / 33-for-62), 3-point shooting percentage (.600 / 9-of-15) and assists (24).
 
Ike Herster led four Rock athletes in double figures with 21 points. Herster, who has now scored at least 21 points in five of SRU's last seven games, went 7-for-10 from the field overall and a near perfect 5-of-6 from 3-point territory. The five triples moved Herster up to 19th in program history for 3-pointers made in a career with 78.
 
Jomo Goings and Maceo Austin turned in matching 18-point games with Goings also adding eight rebounds, five assists and two steals while Austin chipped in five rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block.
 
Point guard Luke Howes scored nine points and dished out five assists without committing a single turnover as well.
 
Sheick Samoura came off the bench to add 10 points in just 11 minutes. Michael Moore tied Goings for team-high honors in rebounds accompanied by a game-best three blocks. Fellow reserve Day Waters rounded out SRU's top contributors with six points, four rebounds and three assists.
 
Slippery Rock played one of its best all-around halves of basketball of the year in the opening 20 minutes Friday. Not only did SRU shoot 47.1 percent from the field – including a 6-for-11 showing from 3-point range – The Rock also held a +7 rebounding margin, forced eight KU turnovers and held the Golden Bears to a .308 shooting percentage.
 
SRU and KU traded baskets early before a 9-2 Rock run, which was highlighted by five points from Austin, opened a 16-6 Slippery Rock advantage seven minutes into the contest.
 
The Golden Bears would go on to get no closer than seven points briefly as the hot-shooting Rock maintained a double-digit advantage for the majority of the remainder of the opening half before taking a 14-point advantage (42-28) into the break.
 
Herster led the offensive onslaught for Slippery Rock by knocking down his first five 3-point attempts of the night on the way to 17 first-half points. Goings nearly picked up a double-double in the first half with nine points and eight rebounds over the opening 20 minutes.
 
Slippery Rock's impressive offensive performance carried over into the second half as SRU closed out the victory by avoiding any sort of second-half scoring drought which has haunted The Rock this season.
 
SRU used an early 9-3 spurt in the second half to push its advantage out to 20 points. The Rock maintained a sizeable advantage for the remainder of the night, leading by as many as 27 points in the period, en route to what was Slippery Rock's second consecutive 14-point win.
 
In addition to its stellar offensive outing, Slippery Rock also finished the game holding Kutztown to a .418 (23-of-55) overall shooting percentage that included a 4-for-21 (.190) mark from distance while making the most of KU's 13 miscues in the form of 21 points off turnovers.
 
Jalen Bryant and Jaiden McGeee scored 39 of KU's 72 points.  
 
Slippery Rock will look to extend its winning streak to three games when it travels to Bloomsburg University 3 p.m. Friday.
 
 
 
 
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