Boxscore

ERIE, Pa. – Senior guard Jabril Bailey scored a team-high 21 points Saturday afternoon to lead the Slippery Rock University men's basketball team to an 81-70 win at 17th-ranked Mercyhurst College to cash a ticket to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference tournament for the second time in the last three seasons.

Bailey was one of four Rock players who scored more than 10 points in the game as the Green and White improved their season records to 18-8 overall, 8-4 in division action.

Most importantly, Saturday's win assured SRU of no lower than a third-place finish in this year's division race. The top four teams in the division at the end of regular-season action next Saturday, Feb. 26, advance to the conference tournament.

Junior guard Devin Taylor added 15 points to the winning attack, while senior forward Maron Brown (left) and sophomore guard Aubin Reeves each contributed 14 points.

Brown also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds to record his school-record 16th “double-double” of the season.

Shelton Jackson scored a game-high 29 points. Heiden Ratner added 17 points and Luis Leao chipped in 14 points and 10 rebounds for Mercyhurst (19-5, 10-2 PSAC-W).

The hosting Lakers suffered its second straight loss and fell into a virtual tie with Indiana (Pa.) for first place in the division standings. Indiana plays at Clarion in a 7:30 p.m. game Saturday.

The Rock returns to Erie for an 8 p.m. game Wednesday vs. Gannon before closing out the regular-season schedule with a 3 p.m. game next Saturday vs. Edinboro. Seven Rock seniors will be honored prior to that game.

Reeves (right), who made his first start of the season in place of injured point guard Jon Valeriano, scored the first four points of the game with a pair of free throws and a jumper to give The Rock a lead it would not relinquish until 11-plus minutes had elapsed off the game clock.

Mercyhurst took its first lead, 13-12, on a jump shot by Jackson with 8:45 left in the first half as part of a 19-8 run by the hosts that gave them a seven-point, 27-20, cushion with three minutes left until halftime.

Undaunted, The Rock came right back with a 10-0 run to close out the first half of action and took a 30-27 advantage into the intermission.

A three-point play by Leao moved Mercyhurst into a 30-30 tie with The Rock 30 seconds into the second half of action, but the Lakers never held a lead in the final 20 minutes.

A 15-8 Rock run in four and a half minutes gave the guests a seven-point, 45-38, lead with 15 minutes left. The Lakers never trimmed the deficit to less than five points the rest of the game.

SRU, after shooting 35% (10-29) from the field and 30% (3-10) from 3-point range in the first half, warmed up to 54% (14-26) and 46% (5-11) efforts in the final 20 minutes to finish the game with 44% and 38% efficiencies.

The Rock was 25 of 34 (74%) from the foul line in the game, while Mercyhurst made 68% (15-22) of its charity tosses.

The Lakers shot 39% (23-59) from the field and 38% (9-24) from 3-point range for the game behind 48% and 54% efforts in the respective categories in the final 20 minutes.

SRU dominated the rebounding battle by a 47-29 margin but committed more turnovers, 20-15.

Notes:

Brown now ranks ninth on SRU's career rebounding chart with 801 and is 11th in career scoring with 1,204 points. He is only the fourth player in Rock men's basketball history to score 1,200 or more points and grab 800 or more rebounds in his career. Ed McFarlane (1958-62; 1583 points, 1019 rebounds), Connie Palumbo (1953-57; 1227 points, 902 rebounds) and Mike Hardy (1975-78; 1221 points, 833 rebounds) were previous members of that elite group … Prior to this year, The Rock had not made two trips to the PSAC tournament in a three-year span since all-time leading scorer Myron Brown led Bob Barlett-coached Green and White squads to four consecutive postseason season appearances from 1987-91 … The Rock made three straight trips to the conference tournament from 1982-84 under head coach Dave Rooney … This year's postseason trip will be only the third made by The Rock since 2000.