Shooting woes plagued the Slippery Rock men’s basketball team in a near comeback against the University of Charleston on Saturday, Nov. 16 at the Morrow Field House. A 66-58 loss dropped SRU to 2-2 on the young season.
Slippery Rock shot just 37 percent from the field and 14 percent from three-point range could not seem to climb the hump and jump back into the game.
Charleston (4-0) held a 50-36 lead with just over 11 minutes left in the second half, leading Slippery Rock (2-2) by 14. An 11-0 run, capped off by a transition dunk by freshman guard Jason Fowlkes, cut the lead to just three points with five minutes left to play.
Senior guard Donovan Walker scored seven of his 11 points in the run, and senior guard Jared Armstrong chipped in four points, to lead the surge for Slippery Rock.
A quick run from Charleston pushed the lead back to double digits and the Golden Eagles cruised to a comfortable eight point victory.
Slippery Rock and Charleston traded baskets early, which held steady until around the midpoint of the first half. The Golden Eagles built on an early lead and pushed ahead to a 10 point lead, and SRU never seemed able to truly break that deficit.
Slippery Rock shot 46 percent from the field in the first half but connected on just 28 percent of its three-point attempts. Charleston shot 40 percent from the field and 33 percent from beyond the arc, but the strong play of senior guard Drew Rackley, 13 points, led the Golden Eagles to a halftime lead.
The second half was more the same for Slippery Rock, inching closer to Charleston before the Golden Eagles would go off on a run of its own.
After cutting the Charleston’s lead to three points late in the game, Slippery Rock shot just two of nine from the field.
Slippery Rock was able to capitalize on forcing Charleston into a season-high 18 turnovers with 26 points off turnovers, mostly from SRU’s 17 points in fast break, transition situations.
Slippery Rock was just unable to hit enough shots to win the game.
Armstrong led the way against the Golden Eagles, scoring a game-high 18 points, and senior forward Will Robinson, Jr. finished with 12 points and eight rebounds. Armstrong and Robinson shot just seven of 17 and six of 17, respectively, from the field.
Walker rounded out the top three scorers with 11 points on five of eight shooting, all three misses coming from beyond the arc.
Slippery Rock looked to rebound with its first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference game this season next on the slate.
Tipoff against Shippensburg University was scheduled for Nov 23. at 3 p.m. at the Morrow Field House.
