ERIE — Kutztown out-Rocked The Rock.

The mantra of the Slippery Rock University men's basketball team has been run, run, run.

Shot clock? What shot clock? The quicker the bucket, the better.

Kutztown shares that philosophy.

So it was no surprise that when the two teams clashed in the PSAC Tournament semifinals at Gannon University's Hammermill Center Friday night, points were going to pile up in a hurry.

Kutztown piled up a few more of them in a 103-90 win that sent the Golden Bears to the conference final.

"It was like racehorse basketball," said Kutztown coach Bernie Driscoll. "I think there was a five-minute stretch when there were no plays called. Our kids like playing that way. They are successful when they play that way."

Kutztown guard Stephen Dennis certainly likes that style.

The junior scored 28 points in the first half as Kutztown built a 56-44 lead.

In the second half, The Rock adjusted. But Dave Ben scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half for the Golden Bears.

Ultimately, it didn't matter what SRU did on defense. Kutztown shot 70 percent from the field in the first half and 61 percent in the game.

"They made a lot of winning plays," said SRU coach Kevin Reynolds. "Whenever you let a team shoot 61 percent on you, your chances of winning are not where they should be."

Kutztown (26-3) got 58 of their points in the paint.

Some of those inside points came from Dennis driving to the hoop in the first half.

Dennis was 11-of-14 shooting in the first 20 minutes. He had only four points in the second half, but his 32 were a career high.

"They were locking on to my shooters, so the lane was wide open," Dennis said.

Every time The Rock got close to catching Kutztown, the Golden Bears hit big shots to pull away.

SRU's last lead was 5-4 with 18 minutes left in the first half. The Rock fell behind by 10 points five minutes later and spent the rest of the game trying desperately to catch up.

Slippery Rock (21-8) got as close as 26-23 midway through the first half and trailed Kutztown by four points on nine separate occasions throughout the contest, but couldn't get closer.

"We didn't come in with the right mind-set," said guard Denell Stephens, who finished with 25 points for The Rock. "We were kind of scattered a little bit. We just had to come out and play harder for longer, and we just didn't."

Maron Brown also had 25 points for SRU.

Rock point guard Kyle Camper was in foul trouble and sat out much of the first half. Camper, who leads all divisions of the NCAA with 300 assists this season, had none at halftime.

Camper, though, ended up with 12 points and five assists.

Now The Rock has to play a waiting game instead of a championship game.

SRU will find out at 9 p.m. Sunday if it gets a berth in the NCAA Division II tournament.

Coming into the conference tournament, The Rock was ranked ninth in the region. The top eight get bids into the NCAA tournament, which begins next Saturday.

SRU beat Indiana (Pa.) University soundly in the first round of the PSAC tournament. IUP was ranked sixth in the region.

Still, Friday's loss made Reynolds a lobbyist.

"We've been on a nice roll and I hope the committee can see in our last 10 games we're 9-of-10," Reynolds said. "We have to sit here and wait on selection Sunday. We think we have the credentials to get in.

"There are not eight teams better than us in the region."

SLIPPERY ROCK 90Maron Brown 9-16 5-5 25, Kyle Camper 3-7 4-4 12, Maurice Douglas 2-7 2-2 8, Michael Evans Jr. 2-8 0-0 6, Denell Stephens 11-21 3-6 25, Gary Satterwhite 0-1 0-0 0, Bryen Spriggs 0-0 0-0 0, Jamar Scales 3-4 0-0 6, Erroll Robinson 3-6 1-1 8, Jade Burka 0-2 0-0 0.

Totals: 33-72 15-18 90

KUTZTOWN 103Mark Bower 4-5 2-2 11, Ryan Washington 7-9 4-8 18, Stephen Dennis 13-24 6-7 32, Andre Woodlin 5-10 0-0 11, Dave Ben 8-14 1-1 22, Steve Coffey 0-0 0-0 0, Julius Gray 1-2 0-0 2, Ryan White 3-3 1-2 7, Jeremy Coombs 0-0 0-0 0.

Totals: 41-67 14-20 103

Halftime score: Kutztown 56-44

3-point goals: Brown 2, Camper 2, Douglas 2, Evans Jr. 2, Robinson; Bower, Woodlin, Ben 5