by By Jon Holtz, Athletic Communication
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men’s basketball team picked up its second straight win with a 52-44 victory over California University (Pa.) Wednesday night in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division action from Morrow Field House.
The Rock never trailed in the second half and fought off late push from the Vulcans to improve to 12-10 overall and 8-8 in PSAC games. The win also moved Slippery Rock into a tie for third place in the PSAC West standings with Pitt-Johnstown and bolsters its playoff position with six regular season games to play. The top six teams in the division will qualify for the league playoffs. SRU currently has a two-game cushion and a head-to-head tiebreaker over sixth place Seton Hill.
California had won three games in a row entering Wednesday night’s meeting, but remained on the outside looking in at the playoff picture with the loss. The Vulcans are now 8-14 overall and 5-11 in league games, one game back of Seton Hill.
Slippery Rock entered the game with the third best scoring defense in the nation and the eighth best shooting percentage defense in the country and will improve on both of those ranks after holding California to just 30 percent shooting and only 44 points. SRU has now held opponents to a combined 24-of-94 (25.5 percent) from the field and a total of 76 points (38.0 points per game) in its last two games after posting a 67-32 win over Seton Hill last Saturday.
The teams traded short swings of momentum early in the first half with 10 lead changes and four ties until the game was even at 19-19 with 6:35 to play before halftime. From there, SRU put together a 9-0 run and closed the half with a 9-2 push to swing the advantage in the favor of the hosts.
The lead grew to double figures twice early in the second half before California rallied back and cut the deficit to two points, 39-37, with 9:03 to play.
A 3-pointer on the next SRU possession from Vinny Lasley (Meskwaki Nation)sparked what would prove to be the decisive run of the game. The Rock pushed the lead back out to 10 points with a 9-1 run to make it 48-38 with 5:57 to play.
California rallied one more time, cutting the deficit to four points with just over one minute to play, but strong defense and clutch free throw shooting from Tony Gates in the final minute sealed the victory.
Slippery Rock finished the game shooting 36.4 percent from the field (20-of-55), 21.1 percent from 3-point (4-of-19) and 72.7 percent at the free throw line (8-of-11).
California shot 30 percent from the field (15-of-50), 17.6 percent from 3-point (3-of-17) and 73.3 percent at the free throw line (11-of-15). The Vulcans, who entered the game as the only team this season to outrebound Slippery Rock after doing so by one rebound in the first meeting between the teams, managed to post a 37-36 edge on the boards. The Rock entered the game ranked fourth in the nation in rebounding margin at +11.4 boards per game.
Lasley paced Slippery Rock with his second career double-double, finishing with 10 points and 11 rebounds. He also handed out four assists, blocked one shot and had no turnovers in 37 minutes of action.
Naquil Jones added a game-high 11 points off the bench for SRU. Gates scored nine points and grabbed five boards and Merdic Green added five points. The Rock got scoring contributions from eight of the nine players that earned minutes in the game.
California was led by Cordell Smith, who matched Jones for game-high honors with 11 points, and Tony Richardson, who posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards.
Wednesday’s win marked the 99th career home victory in the 125th career home game (99-26, .792) for Slippery Rock head coach Kevin Reynolds, who will look for his 100th home win next Wednesday when SRU hosts Mercyhurst. Before that, The Rock will travel to No. 5 Indiana (Pa.) Saturday night for a 7:30 p.m. tip.
