SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team lost to Edinboro, 74-64, Wednesday in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division competition at Morrow Field House.
 
The loss drops The Rock's record to 11-10 overall and 7-6 in league games while the visiting Fighting Scots improve to 11-9 overall and 7-6 inside the PSAC.
 
With seven games remaining in the regular season, Slippery Rock and Edinboro are situated in a tie for second place in the PSAC West standings. The Rock and Fighting Scots are four games behind first-place Gannon, but only two games ahead of seventh-place Seton Hill. The top six teams in the division standings at the end of the regular season qualify for the PSAC Tournament.
 
SRU was led in the defeat by Day Waters, who scored 24 points while also collecting four rebounds and blocking one shot. The 24 points is a season-high for Waters and four points shy of his career-high of 28, which he scored while at Millersville in 2023-24.
 
Ike Herster contributed a 16-point, five-rebound performance as well while Luke Howes served as SRU's third athlete to finish in double figures with 10 points, five assists, four rebounds and one steal.
 
Making his third start of the season, Bobby Clifford chipped in six points, three rebounds, one block and one steal.
 
Rounding out The Rock's top contributors off the bench was the forward combination of Michael Moore (five rebounds, two blocks, one steal) and O'Meech Wilson (four points, four rebounds).
 
After a back-and-forth opening to the game Slippery Rock found itself leading by one point at 15-14 with 10:24 to play in the first half, but Edinboro proceeded to go on a 21-10 run through the following eight minutes which gave the Fighting Scots a 10-point lead they would never relinquish.
 
Edinboro, which led by seven points entering the halftime break, briefly grew its lead to 12 points a minute into the second half before a spirited Rock run cut its deficit to four points (46-42) with 14:30 to play in regulation.
 
However, Slippery Rock could never complete its comeback bid as every time SRU appeared poised to overtake the Fighting Scots, Edinboro would counter with a run of its own. All told, The Rock trimmed their deficit to as little as three points on two separate occasions before Edinboro pulled away late in the eventual 10-point win.  
 
For the game, Slippery Rock shot 39.3 percent (24-for-61) overall, 11.1 percent (1-for-9) from 3-point range and 83.3 percent (15-of-18) at the foul line. For a second straight game SRU went 40 minutes while making single-digit turnovers after only committing seven turnovers Wednesday. Conversely, The Rock forced Edinboro into 11 turnovers.
 
Edinboro earned the road victory, the Fighting Scots' third inside the PSAC West this year, by connecting on nine 3-pointers and holding a +14 rebounding margin (45-31). As a team, Edinboro shot 42.9 percent (27-of-63) from the floor overall and 84.6 percent (11-of-13) at the foul line.
 
Cenker Evran tallied his 16th double-double of the season with 10 points and 18 rebounds to pace Edinboro in the victory. Evran was one of five Fighting Scots to score in double figures alongside Daunte Wilcott (12), Steve Kelly (11), Jonathan Anderson (10) and Ryan Ladjevich (10).
 
Slippery Rock breaks up its stretch of home games with a 3 p.m. Saturday road trip to Seton Hill University. SRU beat the Griffins, 73-61, at Morrow Field House earlier in the year and will be going for its first season sweep of Seton Hill since the 2021-22 campaign.




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