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March 3, 2009
Slippery Rock raced to a 22-point halftime lead and coasted to an 86-69 victory over IUP in the opening round of the PSAC tournament Tuesday at Morrow Field House. The Rock (21-7) advances to play Kutztown in the semifinals on Friday while the Crimson Hawks (21-7) will have to wait until Sunday to see if they receive a bid to the NCAA Division II tournament. The loss was the second for IUP at Slippery Rock in four days, having also dropped a 73-72 decision in the regular season finale Saturday that forced a return trip. Gerald Brooks scored a career-high 32 points, hitting 13 of 21 field goal attempts, and also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and made four steals. But the rest of the Crimson Hawks could convert only 12 of 41 field goal attempts and missed all but two of their 12 3-point tries. Slippery Rock, meanwhile, shot 50.7 percent for the game and had four players reach double figures. Denell Stephens paced The Rock with 20 points and eight rebounds and Kyle Camper had 15 points and 12 assists. Maurice Douglas added 18 points and Maron Brown scored 14. IUP actually jumped out to a quick 11-4 lead and was in front for the first 7:23 of the game until a 3-pointer by Douglas gave Slippery Rock a 16-15 lead. A basket by Ashton Smith, who finished with 12 points, had the Crimson Hawks as close as 26-21 with 8:55 left in the first half before The Rock exploded, outscoring IUP 26-9 the rest of the way to take a 52-30 lead at the break. Sean Christiansen hit two free throws and a 3-pointer in the opening 46 seconds of the second half to get IUP within 52-35, but a layup by Brown and dunk by Stephens made it a 21-point game, and Slippery Rock went on to lead by as many as 30. A final Crimson Hawk run made the final score a bit more respectable. Christiansen hit two 3-pointers in the game, the only two of the night for IUP, and scored nine points. Thomas Young led the Crimson Hawks with three assists and blocked two shots. |
