Wins have been few and far between for the Rock as they have lost seven straight games including a 76-67 loss to Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania.
This tough loss drops their record to 5-16 overall and a disappointing 2-15 in the PSAC conference.
SRU failed in its attempt against Lock Haven, 76-67, Wednesday night at Thomas Field House.
Slippery Rock was led by Jasmine Cooper with a career high 24 points and eight rebounds. D’asia Chambers added 15 points and six rebounds while Danielle Smith contributed 13 points and six rebounds.
Lock Haven was led by Sharay Hall with 23 points. Peaches Nesmithand Samantha Lane chipped in 17 and 11 points, respectively.
Lock Haven took control of the game early by scoring the first seven points and maintained a double-digit lead for most of the game. Slippery Rock battled back within one point by putting together a 6-0 run with 15 minutes left in the first half, but never pulled closer.
Lock Haven pushed right back by scoring the next basket and pushing the lead back to double digits with one minute left in the first half. A late basket by Danielle Smith made the halftime score 35-26.
Slippery Rock’s comeback attempt never materialized as Lock Haven opened the second half with a 11-2 run and pushed the lead to 46-28 with 15 minutes left to play in the game.
Lock Haven built a 19 point lead three different times but Slippery Rock kept fighting and closed the game with a 19-9 run.
Slippery Rock finished shooting 37 percent from the field, 10 percent from behind the ark, and 73 percent at the foul line. They out rebounded Lock Haven by holding a 44-32 edge on the boards.
Lock Haven shot 49 percent from the field, 55 percent from behind the ark, and 70 percent from the foul line.
Slippery Rock women had a golden opportunity to beat Mercyhurst twice in one season but fell 64-58 Saturday at Morrow Field House.
Slippery Rock was led by Danielle Smith with 16 points and seven rebounds. Jasmine Cooper and Sherita Stanley were each in double figures with 13 and 12 points respectively.
They also received solid contributions from their role players such as D’asia Chambers with nine points and Paris Thomas dishing out eight assists.
Mercyhurst was led by Dana Banda with 23 points as she was the only player in double figures. They did get contributions from Katie Carbee and Megan Hoffman with nine points respectively. Leading scorer Niki Frederickson was held to seven points but her teammates picked up the slack.
Mercyhurst had a jump in their step as they raced out to a 15-0 lead only four minutes into the game.
Slippery Rock did not connect on their first field goal until 16 minutes into the first half as Mercyhurst maintained a double-digit lead throughout the first half.
The Green and White went on a 17-7 run of their own to cut the deficit to five points before Mercyhurst swung the momentum back in their favor with a 6-0 run to reach the halftime score of 32-21.Coming out of halftime, Mercyhurst extended their lead to 13 points before Slippery Rock closed the deficit to four points with 16 minutes left in the game.
Mercyhurst stole the momentum back in their favor by scoring 10 unanswered points to push the lead to 15 with 11 minutes to play.
Then Slippery Rock used a 25-10 run to tie the game at 55 all with three minutes left in the second half.
Down the stretch Mercyhurst outplayed Slippery Rock by scoring five straight points and ended the game on a 9-3 run.
Slippery Rock shot 43 percent from the floor, 29 percent from behind the arc, and only 58 percent from the foul line.
Mercyhurst shot 46 percent from the field, 37 percent from behind the arc, and 66 percent from the free throw line. Slippery Rock held their own on the boards as they held a 36-29 advantage.
SRU head coach Tanya Longo said that the lack of execution by SRU led to the loss in the minutes against Mercyhurst.
“In the final minutes, execution was the deciding factor,” Longo said. “Mercyhurst was able to get good looks at the hoop and score. On the other hand, our poor decision making by taking low percentage shots or turning the ball over gave Mercyhurst the edge to win the game.”
Slippery Rock will face an extreme road test in their next game against undefeated and No. 2 ranked Edinboro tomorrow at 2 p.m.
Longo said that the Rock had to make more shots early in the game in order to be successful in conference games.
“We need to knock down more shots early in the game,” Longo said. “The PSAC is an excellent conference with some veteran and successful teams. The biggest challenge for us is matching up with the depth of teams in this league. We rotate six or seven players while other teams can go double-digit deep in their rotation.”
