MANSFIELD, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team continued its strong start to the 2025-26 season with an 85-78 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference victory Saturday on the road at Mansfield.
 
The PSAC crossover victory pushes The Rock's record to 7-1 overall and 1-0 in league play while stretching their winning streak to four games. The host Mounties drop to 1-6 overall and 0-1 inside the conference following the loss.
 
Slippery Rock has now won at least seven of its first eight games for the 13th time in the program's 115-year history.
 
Dating back to the 2011-12 season, when the PSAC began counting crossover games as divisional contests, Slippery Rock has compiled a record of 51-31 (.622) against Eastern Division teams. SRU possess a 22-13 (.629) record in crossover games under head coach Ian Grady.
 
While Mansfield kept the game close throughout the duration of the contest, Slippery Rock still ended the victory having led for over 35 minutes (35:16). SRU has now led for at least 30 minutes in five of its eight games this season.
 
All five of The Rock's starters finished in double figures Saturday, led by Dame Givner's 22-point, six-rebound, three-assist, three-steal performance. Givner has now produced three of the 11 highest single-game scoring totals by a Rock freshman since 2001-02.  
 
Isaac James went for a season-high 19 points in addition to grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out two assists. Ike Herster, who is now 66 points away from becoming the 26th 1,000-point scorer in program history, added 13 points as well as five rebounds, two assists and one steal.
 
Elijah Hill and Brady Mayo rounded out the leading scorers at 11 points apiece with Hill also pulling down six rebounds.
 
The Rock's bench featured Kerwin Prince going for seven points and eight rebounds and Sheick Samoura blocking three shots - the only rejections recorded by either team. Samoura now leads the PSAC in blocks this season (15). The three-block day also moved Samoura into a tie for 16th place on SRU's career blocks list with 57.
 
Slippery Rock led for the majority of the first half following a James jumper 1:10 into regulation that gave SRU a lead it would keep for the near entirety of the period.
 
However, SRU was unable to grow its lead past eight points in the first half as Mansfield kept itself in the game by taking advantage of 10 Rock turnovers and hitting nine free throws. A mini 8-4 spurt by the Mountaineers late in the period gave Mansfield its first lead of the contest, 38-36, with 1:31 showing on the clock.
 
The Rock and Mansfield went on to trade buckets through the remainder of the half, entering the break tied 40-40.
 
SRU scored seven of the opening 11 points in the first half to take a lead at the under 16 media timeout (15:52) only for Mansfield to push the contest back into a tie game at 52-52 with 11:51 left in regulation. A quick 7-0 Rock run, that was capped off by a Herster 3-pointer, followed to give The Rock a 59-52 lead they would not relinquish over final 10 minutes.
 
Slippery Rock closed out the conference victory despite sizable foul trouble down the stretch that saw every Rock athlete that played in the game being charged with at least two fouls, which resulted in Mansfield attempting 32 free throws including 21 in the second half.
 
The Rock limited Mansfield to a .382 field goal percentage in the final 20 minutes, including a 2-of-13 showing from 3-point range.
 
Slippery Rock finished the game shooting 46.9 percent from the field overall (30-of-64) despite going only 4-for-16 from 3-point territory. SRU converted 21-of-25 free throws (.840), including 11 of its final 14 foul shots in the game's final two minutes.
 
SRU controlled the glass with a +12 (45-33) rebounding margin. The Rock also bounced back from the double-digit turnover first half to finish with just 14 miscues.
 
As a team, Mansfield shot 41.5 percent (27-of-65) overall, 20.8 percent (5-of-24) from beyond the arc and 59.4 percent (19-of-32) at the foul line. Sterling Scott scored a game-high 25 points to lead the Mounties.
 
Slippery Rock steps out of PSAC play for the final time in the regular season when it hosts Lake Erie College 6 p.m. Dec. 9 at Morrow Field House. The Rock will be looking to avenge last season's 103-82 road loss to the Storm.






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