Cracked Rock
SLIPPERY ROCK— Morrow Field House has been a house of horrors for Edinboro University women's basketball coach Stan Swank.
But not Wednesday night.
The veteran Fighting Scots coach earned his 350th career win with Edinboro over the weekend, but he had dropped eight of his last nine games at Slippery Rock University.
That trend was reversed in the second half Wednesday as the Scots (10-4, 1-0) outscored The Rock by 21 in the final 20 minutes, posting an 82-59 victory in a mutual PSACWest opener.
The lead changed hands seven times in the first half and the score was tied on five occasions during the first 20 minutes before Edinboro took a 35-33 lead into halftime.
"That first half was fun to watch,"SRUcoach Laurel Heilman said. "I expected more of the same in the second. I figured this game was going down to the wire."
It didn't.
Edinboro matched its season-high of 12 3-pointers, including five from sophomore guard Samantha Reimer, and pulled away from The Rock (6-10, 0-1) in the first eight minutes of the second half.
The Scots had a 59-43 lead with 11:55 left in the game and SRUnever threatened again.
"This was a great win for us,"Swank said. "Slippery Rock was missing some players who I know could have made a difference in how this game was played, but sometimes players who fill in have a lot of emotion and step up big for their team.
"They played with emotion, but our team did a good job of matching it."
In the span of a week, SRUlost three guards: Chere' Marshall, Seneca Valley graduate Kara Spagnola and Nikki Presto.
Marshall broke her thumb early in the year, missed a few games, came back and broke it again. Spagnola tore her ACLand is out for the season. Presto broke her hand and is sidelined indefinitely.
"It's not like we're spraining ankles or pulling hamstrings. ... These are broken bones on freakish plays, the ball hitting their hands in just the wrong spot,"Heilman said. "It's unfortunate. It's just plain bad luck."
Edinboro placed five players in double figures, led by freshman Janine McDonald with 20 points. Senior guard-forward Rae Sherred had 13 points, 10 rebounds and sank three 3-pointers.
"That was Rae's best game at Edinboro,"Swank said. "She was doing everything out there."
Freshman center Haley Gaidosh had 16 points and seven rebounds in 22 minutes for SRU. Grove City High graduate and Rock sophomore Julie Molloy had 15 points, including three treys.Gaidosh was named PSACWest Player of the Week after averaging 17.5 points and six rebounds in two wins over the weekend."I'm tired of hearing how young we are," Heilman said. "We've played plenty of games. To make the playoffs in this league, you have to hold serve at home, find ways to split with teams and get six wins. That's why this loss is so disappointing."<B>Men's Basketball Edinboro 83, SRU 68</B>The Scots (12-4, 1-0) won their fifth straight game, taking the lead for good at 24-22 with 7:10 left in the first half.Edinboro's biggest lead was 25 points with 12:02 left in the game. SRU(2-13, 0-1) led by as much as 14-7 seven minutes into the game before succumbing to its ninth consecutive loss."It's been frustrating because we've lost some close ones,"SRUcoach Jamal Palmer said. "Our selling point has been that we're just beginning conference play. It's a fresh start, everybody 0-0."With 12 minutes left, I looked at our bench and saw a lot of faces dropping. I don't like that. We need guys to play hard and go all out for 40 minutes to turn this around."Edinboro's Joseph Jones scored 22 points and Gil Cummings added 17 while Butler graduate Jade Burka paced The Rock with 12 points and seven rebounds."They've got one of the best shot blockers in the country in Ryan McLemore,"Palmer said. "Our strategy was to go right in at his chest and try to play above the basket inside. But we played too tentative and he altered a lot of shots."McLemore led all players with 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.Despite the rough start, Palmer believes his team can reach postseason play."We can finish among the top four,"he said. "Lock Haven's down a little bit, Shippensburg, IUPand Clarion we can play with. If we take care of business against those teams, we can get there."<B>Women's BoxEDINBORO 82</B>Rae Sherred 5-9 0-0 13, Kelsey Conklin 2-6 1-4 5, Janine McDonald 8-16 1-1 20, Samantha Reimer 7-16 0-0 19, Jessica Trotter 0-0 0-0 0, Kelcie Hellmer 0-0 0-0 0, Brittany Csatlos 0-3 2-2 2, Kim Mardis 0-0 0-0 0, Casey Heller 5-6 0-0 11, Kayla O'Brien 1-1 0-0 2, Kelly Lewis 0-0 0-0 0, Rachel Johnson 5-6 0-0 10. <B>Totals:</B> 33-63 4-7 82<B>SLIPPERY ROCK 59</B>Amanda Nero 1-5 2-2 4, Julie Molloy 5-15 20-2 15, Haley Gaidosh 7-12 2-4 16, Sandra Busser 0-2 0-0 0, KellyAnn Staudinger 1-6 0-0 2, Alissa Schake 1-1 0-0 2, Dana Stewart 0-2 3-4 3, Colleen Smith 3-5 1-2 7, Nijha McNeely 4-5 2-2 10.<B> Totals: </B>22-53 12-16 59<B>Halftime score: </B>Edinboro 35, SRU 33;<B> 3-point goals:</B> Sherred 3, McDonald 3, Reimer 5, Heller; Molloy 3<B>Saturday:</B> SRU at Lock Haven, 1 p.m.<B>Men's BoxEDINBORO 83</B>Devon Knight 4-9 1-2 9, Joseph Jones 9-17 0-0 22, Gil Cummings 7-11 0-0 17, Gerald Warrick 4-7 1-3 9, Ryan McLemore 2-5 0-0 4, Larry Bryant 1-2 0-1 3, Kyree Brown 1-4 2-3 4, Bobby Stauffer 1-1 00-0 3, James Wallace 0-0 0-0 0, Vlad Kovalevsky 2-4 2-4 6, Chris Bess 3-6 0-0 6. <B>Totals:</B> 34-66 6-13 82<B>SLIPPERYROCK 68</B>Darnell Johnson 2-8 4-4 9, Jamar Scales 4-8 0-0 8, Cory Somerville 2-6 1-6 5, Erroll Robinson 3-7 0-2 7, Jade Burka 6-12 0-1 12, Rashiid Coleman 2-3 0-0 4, Matt Schaefer 1-5 0-0 3, Italy Levy 1-3 2-2 4, Ken Ottrix 2-3 1-2 5, Joseph Vines 2-4 4-4 8, Lonnie Perry 1-2 1-3 3.<B> Totals: </B>26-61 13-24 68<B>Halftime score: </B>Edinboro 42, SRU 28; <B>3-point goals:</B> Jones 4, Cummings 3, Bryant, Stauffer; Johnson, Robinson, Schaefer<B>Saturday:</B> SRU at Lock Haven, 3 p.m.
