Boxscore

ERIE, Pa. – Rock solid!

Behind perhaps its finest defensive half of the season, the Slippery Rock University men's basketball team cashed a ticket to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference semifinals with a 51-45 win over hosting Mercyhurst College in quarterfinal action Tuesday night at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center.

The Rock held the Lakers to only three field goals on 25 attempts (12%) in the final 20 minutes of action to overcome a frigid first-half shooting effort of its own.

Mercyhurst, after hitting 10 of its first 20 shots from the floor, finished the game with a 26% (14-53) efficiency on its field goal attempts.

Conversely, The Rock opened the game with a 24% (5-21) shooting effort before it finished with a 32% (17-53) efficiency.

Consequently, The Rock (20-9) moved to the conference final four for the second time in the last three seasons.

The Green and White, the No. 3 seed from the PSAC-East, will play Cheyney (19-8) in Indiana, Pa. Friday evening in the semifinals. Game time has been set for 5:30 p.m. Cheyney, the No. 4 seed from the PSAC-East, upset top seed Mansfield 77-75 in quarterfinal action.

Hosting Indiana U. of Pa. (22-5), a 73-68 winner over California of Pa. Tuesday, will take on East Stroudsburg (16-11), an 83-70 winner over East No. 2 Kutztown, in the other semifinal Friday night at 7:30 p.m. The winners of the semifinals will square off in the championship game Saturday at 7 p.m. in Indiana.

Senior guard Jabril Bailey paced The Rock attack Tuesday night with a game-high 22 points and 11 rebounds. Junior guard Devin Taylor chipped in 11 points in a substitute role, while senior forward Maron Brown added eight points and 12 rebounds.

Heiden Ratner scored a team-high 16 points for Mercyhurst, the No. 2 team in the PSAC-West final standings, which saw its season record fall to 20-7.

The Rock shot 29% (6-21) from 3-point range and canned 11 of 13 (85%) of its free throws.

Mercyhurst was 2-of-14 (14%) from 3-point range and 79% (15-19) from the foul line.

The Rock held a 41-37 advantage in rebounds, had one more turnover (12-11) and, behind Taylor's lead, outscored the hosts by a 18-9 margin.

SRU also held slim 14-12 and 10-9 advantages in scoring “in the paint” and off turnovers. The Rock committed only three second-half turnovers.

The Rock never led in the first 30 minutes of action but, once they took the lead, never trailed thereafter.

Mercyhurst scored the first five points and held a 15-7 lead with 12:45 left in the first half. The Lakers extended their lead to 13 points, 29-16, with 5:15 left in the half before The Rock scored eight of the final 10 points to trim the margin to five points, 31-26, at the intermission.

Bailey carried most of the scoring load for SRU as he scored 10 of his team's first-half points. Ratner pretty much matched Bailey's output as he had 12 first-half tallies.

As has been the case throughout the latter part of the season, The Rock started the game with a cold shooting hand. The Green and White made only five of their first 17 (29%) field goal attempts before warming up slightly.

The Rock finished the first half with a 30% (9-30) shooting efficiency that included a 4-of-11 (36%) showing from 3-point range. SRU made all four of its first-half free throws.

Mercyhurst, after hitting 10 of its first 20 shots, made only one of its last eight to finish the half with a 39% (11-28) shooting efficiency. The Lakers made two of eight 3-point shots and canned all seven free throws in the first half.

SRU held a 22-16 advantage in rebounds, but were on the high side of an 8-3 turnover comparison. Mercyhurst failed to take advantage of those opportunities, though, as the Lakers only held a 7-4 lead in points off turnovers.

The Lakers also held an 8-4 advantage in scoring “in the paint.” Each team got eight points “off the bench” in the first half.

The hosts held onto the lead for the first 10 minutes of the second half before a post-up move by Brown gave SRU its first lead, 38-37.

A Taylor slam dunk extended The Rock lead to 40-37 with 9:10 left to play before Mercyhurst tied the count at 40-40 with 7:20 remaining.

A 7-0 Rock run, highlighted by 3-point shots by senior guard Rashiid Coleman and Bailey, pushed The Rock to a 47-40 lead with four minutes left.

Mercyhurst responded with a 5-0 run to trim the deficit to 47-45 with 45 seconds left, but that was the extent of the Lakers' comeback.

A conventional 3-point play by Taylor with 40 seconds left and a free throw by sophomore guard Aubin Reeves expanded the final margin to six points.

Notes:

Brown leaped up three spots into fourth place on SRU's career rebounding chart. He now has 839 in his three-year Rock career to go along with 1,247 points, the No. 8 total in Rock history … With the win Tuesday, Kevin Reynolds (56-29 record) moved into a tie for sixth place on SRU's career victories list … The Rock is appearing in the PSAC tournament for the 15th time and will be playing a semifinal game for the fifth time in its last five appearances and 11th time overall … This season marks only the fifth time in school history a Rock men's team recorded 20 or more wins.