SLIPPERY ROCK — This is the season Bobby McGraw has been waiting for.

The Mars resident, in his eighth year as Slippery Rock University women's basketball coach, has The Rock poised to complete a much-needed breakthrough campaign.

Saturday's 65-62 win over Clarion at Morrow Field House — a game that featured 10 ties and 14 lead changes — improved SRU to 10-3 overall, 5-2 in conference play. It also marked the team's fourth consecutive victory.

“In years past, this game would have slipped away from us ... not this year,” McGraw said.

“We finally have a team with all the pieces in place. There's no reason why we can't win the PSAC championship, no reason at all.”

SRU hasn't had a winning season in 20 years. When McGraw accepted the head coaching job prior to the 2013-14 campaign, he inherited a program that had lost 86 of 105 games over the previous four seasons.

The Rock finished 8-20 in 2019-20. The team has already surpassed that win total this season.

“It helps when you have the most dominant center in the country,” McGraw said, smiling.

That would be Jamiyah Johnson, a graduate student and transfer from Davis & Elkins College in West Virginia. The 6-foot-0 center is averaging 18.5 points and 15.8 rebounds per game. She leads the nation — all divisions — in rebounding and double-doubles (13) this season.

Johnson tallied 22 points and 14 rebounds Saturday before being ejected from the game with 8:56 left and SRU clinging to a 1-point lead.

“The difference today, and this season, has been defense,” senior point guard and fourth-year Rock player Daeja Quick said. “This team is serious about playing defense.

“We've had teams that could score in other years. This team can score, too. But defense wins games.”

McGraw admitted he's been preaching defense from the day he took the job.

“But it's different when it's coming from your captains on the floor,” the coach said. “When players like Daeja and Jamiyah are committed to guarding — and making sure the other players are following suit — that's a whole different story.

“When we guard, we can beat any team we play.”

Quick is averaging 14.7 points and 3.6 assists per game. She had nine assists against Clarion. She is leading all of Division II with 38.91 minutes per game.

“She's a calming influence on the floor,” McGraw said. “Daeja does not get rattled. She's fully confident this team will find a way to win.”

Quick described McGraw as “a passionate coach who wants to win more than we do, and he's not even a player.

“He treats us like we're his daughters. He cares about us as people first, then our academics, then basketball,” she added.

McGraw's willingness to help people wound up playing a big part in Johnson joining The Rock.

She compiled 44 double-doubles during a productive basketball career at Davis & Elkins. Johnson had a year of eligibility left and wanted to go to graduate school.

“Davis & Elkins doesn't have a graduate school,” McGraw said. “Tommy Kelly, a former men's basketball player here when I was an assistant coach on that team, coaches lacrosse at Davis & Elkins.

“When Tommy was here, I helped him get into graduate school. He always told me he owed me a favor for that. He clued me in on Jamiyah and that's how we got her.

“Guess that shows ya ... Do something nice for someone and it can come back to you,” McGraw added.

Johnson has no regrets coming to The Rock.

“I'm having fun,” she said. “Everybody was so welcoming to me. This is my family now.

“We're playing together and we're playing well. There's no reason why this can't continue.”

Kennedy and Isabellah Middleton are underclassmen sisters on the team who both start. Kaylin Venick sees plenty of minutes off the bench as a freshman.

Quick is the lone senior on the roster.

“We have a lot of returning players and the plan is to build off whatever success we have this year,” McGraw said. “Again, defense is the difference. Now that the players are realizing the fruits of their labor, that defense should be here to stay.”

Three Butler County athletes — Butler graduate and sophomore forward Jordan Kaufman, Slippery Rock High graduate and freshman forward Hallie Raabe, and Mars resident and Eden Christian graduate Haylee Fleishman — are also on the roster.

“Jordan is physically strong and has the body to play in the PSAC,” McGraw said. “All she needs is experience. She will be a viable contributor to this team down the road.

“Hallie is a couple of years away, but she will play here as well.”

Raabe is the first Slippery Rock High School graduate to make The Rock roster since Heather Kearney, the program's all-time leading scorer who graduated from SRU in 1999.

“I'm excited about this team and our future teams,” McGraw said. “Absolutely, this is what I've been waiting for.”