ERIE, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team lost a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division road game at No. 21 Gannon University Wednesday, 90-64.
 
Following the matchup between the two top teams in the PSAC West standings, Slippery Rock's record moves to 10-8 overall and 6-4 inside the conference while the nationally ranked Golden Knights push their winning streak to 15 games while improving to 15-2 overall and 10-0 in the PSAC.
 
Slippery Rock was led on the night by Jomo Goings, who went for 20 points, eight rebounds, four assists, one block and one steal. Goings is now 40 points away from becoming the 25th athlete in program history to score 1,000 career points in a Rock uniform.
 
Ike Herster and Sheick Samoura joined Goings in double figures with 14 and 10 points, respectively. Samoura, who battled through foul trouble much of the night, also added two blocks, two steals and three rebounds.
 
Goings and Herster combined to shoot 11-for-22 (.500) from the field Wednesday.  
 
Day Waters chipped in six points, three blocks and two steals while Mack Staunch came off the bench to register five points and six rebounds. Bobby Clifford (5 points), Luke Howes (4 points) and O'Meech Wilson (4 rebounds) rounded out SRU's top performers.  
 
Gannon jumped out to a sizable 22-8, 14-point advantage midway through the first half before The Rock came alive with 12 unanswered points over the following three minutes to trim its deficit all the way down to two points with 7:52 to play in opening period. Herster and Goings combined for eight points over the run.
 
The two-point margin proved to be as close as SRU could get in the first half. Gannon was always able to do just enough to keep Slippery Rock at bay as the two teams traded baskets through much of the remainder of the half before GU went on a 10-5 run to push its lead back out to nine points at 40-31 entering the break.
 
While The Rock held the Golden Knights to a 31.1 field goal percentage in the first half and countered GU's 11 forced turnovers with 10 of their own, Gannon was ultimately able to take a multiple possession lead into halftime by converting five 3-pointers to SRU's one and holding a +17 (34-17) rebounding margin that included 18 offensive rebounds which resulted in 11 second chance points.
 
Slippery Rock was unable to mount another serious comeback bid in the game's final 20 minutes as the Golden Knights scored 13 consecutive points to start the second half, opening a 22-point edge SRU could never recover from on the way to the eventual 26-point victory.
 
SRU exited the contest shooting 40.4 percent (23-of-57) from the field overall, 15.8 percent (3-of-19) from 3-point range and 62.5 percent (15-of-24) from the foul line.
 
Defensively, the Golden Knights scored 34 points off 26 Slippery Rock turnovers. As part of its +18 (57-38) rebounding margin was 28 offensive rebounds which Gannon parlayed into 16 second chance points. Offensively, GU shot 38.6 percent (34-of-88) overall, 37.9 percent (11-of-29) from 3-point territory and 57.9 percent (11-of-19) at the foul line.
 
Ernest Shelton scored 22 points and Tasman Goodrick collected a 15-point, 17-rebound double-double to lead Gannon.  
 
Slippery Rock remains on the road for a 3 p.m. Saturday game at Clarion. SRU swept the Golden Eagles in the season series a year ago and have won five straight against Clarion overall.






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