The Rock sweeps Gannon
SLIPPERY ROCK — While Maron Brown already is a go-to player, Slippery Rock University coach Kevin Reynolds is optimistic senior Jabril Bailey can become one as well.
In Wednesday's game against Gannon, Bailey scored on a pull-up jumper from 15 feet out that banked in with two seconds left to give The Rock a 69-67 PSAC West victory at Morrow Field House.
The Knights threw the inbounds pass away as SRU secured the win.
“I just wanted us to take that last shot,” Reynolds said. “Jabril is an all-conference player. I feel very confident with the ball in his hands.”
Brown led all scorers with 25 points on 10 of 15 shooting while Bailey added 13.
Slippery Rock (15-6, 5-2) had taken a three-point lead with 17:53 to play before the Knights (10-8, 2-5) drained three consecutive 3-pointers — one by Kelvin Agee, then two by Danard Crouch — for a 45-39 lead.
Slippery Rock answered with a basket by Rashiid Coleman, a 3-pointer by Tommy Kelly and a score by Devin Taylor to take a 46-45 lead with 13:34 to play.
The teams would exchange leads until Joe Vines sank a free throw and Torrance Timothy converted a 3-point play to give SRU a 52-49 lead.
SRU opened a 59-52 advantage with 6:53 to go, but a pair of free throws by Tanner Furno and a score by Anthony Clagett made it a three-point game.
“(Gannon's) a nice team and they made a lot of tough shots,” Reynolds noted. “I felt we guarded them well. They shot 45 percent, which is the highest we've been in a while.”
Clinging to a 65-61 lead with 3:08 remaining, Furno scored on a jump shot, then Clagett drained a 3-pointer with 1:10 to play to tie the game at 65.
The Rock retook the lead when Brown scored on a driving layup with 48 seconds to play before Furno tied it with a layup of his own.
The Rock worked the clock down for the final shot, which set up Bailey's heroics.
“We were up by three at the half and I felt we had to play harder and we needed to get the offensive boards,” Reynolds said. “We ended up with 17 and we missed 33 shots (26-of-59). I always feel if we get one of our two misses, we'll be OK, and that's what we did.”
The Rock got huge contributions from the reserves, as Timothy added nine points, Kelly eight and Coleman seven points.
The Knights had four players in double figures: Travis Brannen (16 points), Agee (12), Stephen Battle (11) and Furno (10).
<b>SRU 71, Gannon 63</b>SRU coach Tanya Longo has seen her team piece together good stretches of games, but it hadn't put it all together — until Wednesday.The Rock connected on 11 of its 23 3-point attempts and had five players reach double figures in the triumph over Gannon in SRU's first PSAC West victory of the year.“We talked about 40 minutes, and tonight it was from start to finish,” Longo said. “Our bench did a great job. Everyone contributed.”Gannon (9-9, 2-5) used a 15-6 run to take its biggest lead of the game at 24-18 before SRU (3-16, 1-6) continued its torrid 3-point shooting, getting one each from Grace Palucis, Shannon Lee and Alex Beatty, the latter trimming the deficit to 31-29.“We haven't knocked them down real well this season, but we showed we're capable of it,” said Longo on shooting 3-pointers.When Sherita Stanley sank two free throws, the game was tied at 31 with 3:43 before halftime.With the game tied at 37, Gannon's Kelley Sundberg nailed a running 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Knights the lead.Danielle Tucker opened the second half with a basket to give Gannon a five-point lead, but a 3-pointer and a basket by SRU's Marlynda Harland tied the game with 16:27 to play.The teams would tie four more times, the last at 55, before a 3-pointer by Palucis and a free throw by Harland made it 59-55 with 6:47 left.Gannon trailed by four points with 34.6 seconds left, but Danielle Smith and Lee calmly sank two free throws apiece to close out the scoring.Smith led all scorers with 18 points while Palucis added 14 points, Stanley and Lee had 11 apiece and Beatty had 10 points.Gannon received 14 points from Julie Kleber and 10 from Tucker.
