INDIANA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's basketball team continued its late-season push towards the postseason with an impressive 78-71 road victory Saturday over Indiana University (Pa.) at the Kovalchick Convention & Athletic Complex.
 
With the win, Slippery Rock improves its record to 14-13 overall and 10-9 in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference competition while the host Crimson Hawks fall to 12-14 overall and 7-10 in league play. Saturday's victory was critical on a variety of levels for The Rock.
 
Most importantly, SRU's win – combined with a 73-72 victory by Edinboro over Seton Hill University – ensures that Slippery Rock will host an opening-round game of the PSAC Tournament March 3 at Morrow Field House as either the third or fourth seed.
 
Being able to host a first round game in the PSAC Tournament has proven to be of the utmost importance under the conference's current format. Since the 2012-13 season, the third and fourth seeds in the Western Division and Eastern Division hold a combined record of 39-5 in the first round of the PSAC Tournament.
 
Saturday's result also breaks a 33-year winless drought for Slippery Rock in games played against the Crimson Hawks in Indiana in addition to marking the first regular season sweep by SRU over IUP since 1990-91.
 
This year's regular season sweep of the Crimson Hawks paired with SRU's 81-62 win at the end of the 2023-24 season gives The Rock three consecutive victories against Indiana for the first time in 34 years.
 
Also not to be overlooked is the fact that SRU appears to be clicking at the best possible time with three consecutive wins entering its regular season finale at Edinboro on Feb. 26.

The Rock led for nearly 37 minutes Saturday (36:40) as they paired their most efficient offensive performance of the season with a sound defensive gameplan to earn the convincing road victory.
 
Slippery Rock shot a season-high 56.9 percent (29-of-51) from the field overall all the while connecting on 46.2 percent (6-of-13) of its 3-point attempts and an even 70 percent (14-for-20) of its free throws. SRU, which entered the contest ranked last in the PSAC in turnovers per game, also limited its mistakes to just nine miscues over the 40 minutes.
 
Defensively, Slippery Rock earned a +6 (36-30) rebounding margin while holding IUP well below its season averages in both overall field goal percentage (.439 / 29-of-66) and long-range accuracy (.267 / 8-for-30).

As was the case in The Rock's 75-64 home win over IUP on Jan. 22, Saturday's victory was the result of another great all-around team effort.
 
Jomo Goings further established himself as one of the top athletes in the PSAC by turning in a 21-point, six-rebound, five-assist, one-steal performance while playing all 40 minutes. Goings' 20 points vaulted him into 21st place in program history for points in a career (1,076). He is now 11 points away from passing Curt Williams (1984-88) for 20th place.
 
Day Waters played an instrumental role in the win with 20 points, seven rebounds and one steal. Waters, who has now scored at least 20 points in four of The Rock's last seven games, ignited the offense early Saturday's by scoring six of SRU's first eight points.
 
Ike Herster returned to the starting lineup and promptly exploded for 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting overall including a pair of 3-pointers to go with six rebounds.
 
Michael Moore racked up team-high totals of nine rebounds and three blocks. Moore has blocked 12 shots in his last four appearances.
 
Rounding out SRU's top performers were Luke Howes, Sheick Samoura and O'Meech Wilson. Howes made several timely shots that continually stifled several IUP runs on the way to a nine-point, three-assist outing. Samoura and Wilson came off the bench to give The Rock seven points and three rebounds, respectfully.

The opening half was a back-and-forth 20 minutes that ultimately concluded with Slippery Rock leading by six points at 43-37 entering the break.
 
After trading leads over the first five minutes, Herster hit a 3-pointer that gave The Rock an advantage they would only ever so briefly relinquish the rest of the day. While Indiana did tie the game with five minutes to play in the first half, SRU quickly answered with baskets by Moore and Howes to re-extend its lead for good.
 
Slippery Rock closed out the win with a second-half performance in which it grew a lead of as many as 12 points while holding IUP to three scoring droughts of at least three minutes on the way to its big late-season victory.  
 
Christian Moore scored 22 points to lead Indiana.

Slippery Rock will look to maintain its momentum when it travels to Edinboro 7:30 p.m. Feb. 26 for the final game of the regular season. Slippery Rock lost to the Fighting Scots, 74-64, earlier in the season at SRU.
 
A win at Edinboro would ensure Slippery Rock of a seventh consecutive winning season regardless of postseason outcomes.



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