Boxscore

ERIE, Pa. – A frigid first-half shooting effort proved fatal to the Slippery Rock University men's basketball team Wednesday night as the Green and White dropped a heart-breaking 54-53 decision at Gannon University in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division action.

Adding agony to the angst of the narrow loss was the fact the setback all but snuffed out SRU's hopes for a second consecutive appearance in the conference's postseason tournament.

The loss dropped The Rock (13-9 overall, 2-7 PSAC-West) three full games behind both Gannon (10-11, 5-4) and Mercyhurst, which are tied for third place in the division standings, with only five games remaining in the battle for one of the four postseason berths awarded to PSAC-West competitors.

The Rock will look to keep its flickering postseason hopes alive Saturday when it entertains Edinboro in a 3 p.m. division game in Morrow Field House.

To remain alive in the postseason hunt, The Rock, which entered the game ranked fourth in the PSAC in scoring at 79.5 points per game, must regain its scoring prowess.

Wednesday's game marked the second time in as many games the Green and White recorded a season-low point total; Wednesday's total was five points lower than SRU's 58-point output last Saturday at Mercyhurst.

The shooting woes became apparent early on Wednesday as The Rock, which never led in Wednesday's game, shot an ice-old 21% (7-33) from the field and 17% (3-17) from 3-point range in the opening 20 minutes.

A 40% (12-30) shooting effort in the second half brought The Rock to the brink of snatching the proverbial victory from the jaws of defeat, but wasn't quite enough.

The Rock tied the score on two occasions in the final 90 seconds of action before Gannon standout George Johnson's free throw with one second left provided the hosts with the winning margin.

Johnson finished the game with a 10-point, 13-rebound “double-double” to lead Gannon's winning attack.

Junior guard Jabril Bailey, who hit a jump shot with 14 seconds left to play to tie the score at 53-53, scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds for SRU.

Senior guard Andre Tarver added 12 points and five assists. All his points were scored in the second half; he accounted for 12 of The Rock's final 22 points in the game.

The Rock finished the game with a 30% (19-63) efficiency on its field goal attempts, an effort drug down by a dismal 5-of-28 (18%) effort from 3-point range. SRU also hurt its victory chances by only sinking 10 of 17 (59%) free throws.

The frigid shooting effort was déjà vu for The Rock, who shot a season-low 25.8% in its 81-63 loss Jan. 20 to Gannon in Morrow Field House.

Gannon shot 35% (19-55) from the field, 24% (5-21) from 3-point range and 55% (11-20) from the foul line Wednesday.

The hosts had a 50-39 advantage in rebounds and were able to withstand having twice as many turnovers (19-9) as The Rock.

Gannon scored the first five points of the game and had a 17-9 advantage after seven and a half minutes of action. The Rock came right back with a 7-0 run in the span of five minutes to trim the deficit to only one, 17-16, with 7:30 left before halftime.

The hosts responded with a 9-0 run of their own to push the margin to 10 points, 26-16, with 4:15 remaining before the intermission and then answered a 5-0 Rock rally with six unanswered points en route to an 11-point, 32-21, lead with 60 seconds left before halftime.

The Golden Knights held an eight-point, 32-28, advantage at the intermission.

That was a bad omen for The Rock, who with Wednesday's loss have won only two of the 10 games in which is trailed at halftime.

While The Rock was primarily shooting blanks on its field goal tries in the first 20 minutes, Gannon was clicking along at a 40% (12-30) pace. The Golden Knights also enjoyed a 27-21 rebounding advantage but committed more first-half turnovers, 7-3.

The Rock opened the second half of action with a 9-2 run to trim the deficit to one point, 34-33, with 18 minutes left to play but Gannon responded with six unanswered points and a 10-3 run in the next five and a half minutes to push the lead to eight, 44-36, with 12:15 remaining.

A 6-0 scoring spurt by The Rock made it a 44-42 game with 9:45 left before Gannon again rallied for a 7-2 run and a 51-44 lead with five minutes left to play.

A 7-0 Rock run in the next three and a half minutes, capped by a jump shot by junior forward Maron Brown, brought the teams even at 51-51 with 90 seconds left to play.

A pair of free throws by Tanner Furno with 26 ticks left put Gannon up by two points before Bailey's jumper tied the score again at 53-53, which set the stage for Johnson's game-winning free throw.