Jomo Goings led all scorers with 26 points, and added six rebounds and six assists, but The Rock suffered their first loss of the season in overtime to Virginia Union University 73-70 Saturday night at Morrow Field House.
Ike Herster got the scoring going for Slippery Rock with a layup to tie the game at two after Virginia Union took the lead on a Che Evans jumper.
The two teams then traded baskets until SRU claimed their largest lead of the game at eight when Goings made a jumper to push the lead to 30-22.
Slippery Rock took a 36-31 into halftime largely because of the 11 free throws they knocked down in the first half, compared to the Panthers two made foul shots.
The Rock’s halftime lead quickly vanished to start the second half as Virginia Union went on an eight-to-two scoring run. SRU was down one at the first media timeout of the second 20.
The rest of the regulation had 10 lead changes and SRU had their opportunity to put away the game in the final minute, but missed three out of four free throws. This was all the Panthers needed to send the game into overtime on the back of a Tahj Harding three-pointer.
The overtime period was much of the same as there were two more lead changes. Goings made two three-point jumpers in overtime to account for six of the Rock’s eight OT points.
It wasn’t enough for The Rock, as Harding’s layup and free throw while the game was tied at 70 with 16 seconds left were the winning points.
The Rock had three double digit scorers of the night as Goings had 26, Maceo Austin had 14 and Herster poured in 13.
Virginia Union was led by O’Maundre Harris with 18 points, along with Harding’s 17 and Johnathan Salazar’s 15.
The Rock men’s basketball heads to Virginia on Wednesday to take on Wheeling University in another non-conference matchup. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. at the Alma Grace McDonough Center.
