SLIPPERY ROCK — It may say 100 wins under Kevin Reynolds' name, but the Slippery Rock University men's basketball coach would rather share it with the rest of the program.

“The focus has been the team,” Reynolds said. “We've never focused on the individual. It's never been about individual accolades. Whenever you win a lot of games, it's credited to two things. One, the players. We've been real lucky. We've had a lot of really good players. Secondly, the coaches. We have four who have been at the Division I level.”

The Rock (3-1, 1-0)notched its 100th win under Reynolds thanks to a big second half surge that led to a 79-65 win over Clarion University Wednesday night at Morrow Field House in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-West opener.

Reynolds is now 100-52 at The Rock. SRU had won just 91 games from 1995 to 2008 before Reynolds was hired.

“What this tells me is this was a real hard job when I got it,” Reynolds said. “This isn't a job where you can have a family. You can't have a life with what we are up against with the competition.

“I'm grateful every day that (athletic director Paul Lueken) and (former SRU president Robert Smith) gave me the opportunity to be the coach,” Reynolds added. “There's not a day that goes by that I'm not grateful. They believed in me, so I figured from the first day we needed to be good because those guys trusted in me.”

The 100th win was by no means easy to get.

Clarion led 35-34 at the half despite shooting poorly from 3-point range and being dominated on the boards.

Those trends continued in the second half. What didn't continue were the turnovers that SRU committed in the first 20 minutes.

The Rock had eight turnovers in the first 12 minutes of the game and 11 at the half. SRU had eight turnovers in the second half.

“That's why I think we started slow,” Reynolds said. “It's hard to get into a rhythm when you are turning the ball over at that rate.”

Clarion (1-1, 0-1) shot just 18 percent from behind the arc. Slippery Rock also out-rebounded the Golden Eagles 53-32.

SRU had three players with double-doubles. Maurice Lewis-Briggs led the team with 21 points and also had 11 boards. Tabari Perry had a 20-11 night and Kelvin Dixon a 12-12 evening.

Perry was big in the second half, hitting some huge shots to keep Clarion at bat.

“We came out flat in the second half and they jumped us,” said Clarion coach Ron Righter.

Especially on the glass.

“We got back to normal,” Reynolds said. “We haven't been happy with how we rebounded.”

Reynolds said the win was a big one to start the conference season because of the pending games on the schedule.

“Tonight was really a must-win for us,” Reynolds said. “You hate to say that three games in the season, but that's what is was.”

CLARION 65

Mike Kroma 2-7 3-8 8, B.J. Andrews 2-5 1-2 7, Marques Jones 2-12 5-6 9, Corey Bellovich 0-2 0-0 0, DeMarius Miller 4-11 3-6 11, Anthony Baker 0-2 0-0 0, Tyrone McFadden 0-0 0-0 0, Darius Stevens 8-16 6-10 23, Justin Grant 0-0 0-0 0, Jeremy Schmader 1-1 0-0 2, Aaron Johnson 2-3 0-0 5, Kaneeayl 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 21-61 18-32 65.

SLIPPERY ROCK 79

Maurice Lewis-Briggs 9-17 3-5 21, Tabari Perry 8-10 0-0 20, Kelvin Dixon 5-11 0-0 12, Josh Martin 5-11 4-4 16, Sa'Quan Davis 2-7 0-0 4, Jordan Grady 0-0 0-0 0, Matej Delinac 0-3 0-0 0, Abdul King 0-0 0-2 0, Antonio Butler 0-2 0-0 0, Erik Raleigh 1-5 4-4 6. Totals: 30-66 11-15 79.

Halftime score: Clarion 35-34

3-point goals: Clarion 5-27 (Kromka 1-1, Andrews 2-3, Jones 0-6, Bellovich 0-2, Miller 0-5, Baker 0-2, Stevens 1-7, Johnson 1-1). Slippery Rock 8-21 (Lewis-Briggs 0-2, Perry 4-6, Dixon 2-2, Martin 2-6, Davis 0-3, Delinac 0-2)