SLIPPERYROCK— The play was blown up, so Chere' Marshall threw one up.

The result lifted the spirits of the Slippery Rock University women's basketball team Tuesday night at Morrow Field House.

SRUled Fairmont (W.Va.) State by 13 points with 8:20 remaining and held a 55-47 advantage with 2:34 left, only to watch the Falcons' Ashley Vavrek sink three 3-pointers in the closing moments, the final one knotting the score at 58 with 12.5 seconds left.

"As hard as we fought and as well as we played all night, it would have been a shame to lose this game,"Rock coach Laurel Heilman said.

They didn't.

Marshall, a 5-foot-6 junior guard, heaved a desperation shot toward the basket while standing on her left foot a few feet inside the halfcourt line and nearly falling out of bounds just before the buzzer sounded.

She hit nothing but net, and The Rock (2-1) had itself a 61-58 victory.

"We were trying to reverse the ball, but (Fairmont State) read the play and jumped out on us,"Marshall said. "The ball was deflected and came toward me, then bounced off my foot.

"I just ran back, picked it up and let it fly."

Four years ago, while playing for Hickory, Marshall beat Slippery Rock High on a similar desperation shot just before the buzzer.

"That night, I took the ball just across midcourt, saw the clock going three, two, one and tossed one up,"she said. "I think that was off my left foot, too."

The Rock led the Falcons (2-1) from the 16-minute mark of the first half until only 1:01 remained in the game, when Vavrek's fourth of five second-half 3-pointers tied the game at 55.

A free throw by Marshall and two by KellyAnn Staudinger gave SRUa 58-55 edge before Vavrek tied things again and set the stage for Marshall's heroics.

Vavrek was 0-for-5 from beyond the arc in the first half, 5-for-7 in the second half.

"She found her shot, but I didn't want to come out of our zone,"Heilman said. "They run a lot of set plays and I didn't like our matchups with them man to man."

With six minutes left and SRUnursing a six-point lead, The Rock's Nijha McNeely tossed in a desperation 3-pointer from deep in the corner, barely beating the shot clock and giving her team a 54-45 lead.

"Those two shots didn't beat us,"Fairmont State coach Steve McDonald. "Their effort beat us. They wanted this game more than we did and they outworked us.

"We showed character, the way we fought back, but we dug ourselves too deep of a hole earlier."

Fairmont State is one of the title contenders in the WVIAC.

"This group may not always play smart, but we'll always play hard,"Heilman said. "We lost a lot of our aggressiveness late in the game. We're still learning how to close out games."

Grove City High graduate Julie Molloy had 10 points, including two 3-pointers, for The Rock. She is one of the team's captains despite being with the program only eight weeks.

Mercyhurst 62, SRU (men)58 — The Rock (0-1) never led in dropping its season opener.Mercyhurst (3-1) led by as many as 14 at 32-18 with 1:47 left in the first half. SRUgot within 48-46 with 5:33 left, but the Lakers' Terry Smith and Milos Bogetic responded with 3-pointers on consecutive possessions.Joseph Vines' layup cut the gap to 58-55 with 32 seconds to go, but a fast-break layup by the Lakers' Patrick McLain the other way sealed the deal.The Rock sank only 11 of 26 free throws."Those are free shots and we have to make them,"SRUcoach Jamal Palmer said. "We ask the guys to work too hard to get to the line to not take advantage of it."Darnell Johnson led The Rock with 19 points, while Butler graduate Jade Burka, making his first regular season college basketball start, had nine points and a team-high 11 rebounds."The last two years we've played Mercyhurst, they blew us out,"Palmer said. "That's a program with 10 full scholarships. We only lost by four points this time."Still, we can't settle for moral victories. We feel like we gave a game away tonight and we can't accept that."

Men's BoxMERCYHURST62Terry Smith 6-19 2-4 18, T.J. Mathis 0-5 4-4 4, Brian McTear 5-12 2-6 15, Iddo Cohen 2-2 2-2 6, Patrick McLain 2-2 0-0 4, Srdjan Popovic 0-0 0-0 0, Milos Bogetic 4-8 2-2 11, Ronnie Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Anthony Terry 0-6 0-0 0, Ryann Bradford 0-3 0-0 0, Cory Tubo 2-2 0-0 4. Totals: 21-59 12-18 62

SLIPPERYROCK58Darnell Johnson 6-10 3-4 19, Jamar Scales 3-10 3-4 10, Joseph Vines 1-7 0-4 2, Erroll Robinson 3-7 2-2 10, Jade Burka 4-9 1-6 9, Matt Schaefer 0-0 0-0 0, Ken Ottrix 2-7 1-4 5, Cory Somerville 0-0 0-0 0, Lonnie Perry 1-3 1-2 3. Totals: 20-53 11-26 58

Halftime score: Mercyhurst 34, SRU 25

3-point goals: Smith 4, McTear 3, Bogetic; Johnson 4, Scales, Robinson 2;

Rebounds:Mercyhurst 42 (Bogetic 10), SRU30 (Burka 11);

Turnovers:Mercyhurst 18, SRU15

Friday: SRU vs. Point Park atGary Miller Classic in Erie, 6 p.m.

Women's BoxFAIRMONTSTATE58Ashley Vavrek 6-15 0-0 17, Angela Scotchel 2-6 0-0 5, Jaimie Merinar 2-6 3-4 7, Gabby Gattuso 6-14 2-2 14, Danielle Cornish 4-14 1-2 9, Samantha Guell 0-1 0-0 0, Brittany Holestine 2-4 0-0 5, Danielle Graunke 0-0 0-0 0, Samantha Wanichko 0-3 1-2 0, Shannon Wanichko 0-0 0-0 0, Melissa Henry 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-63 7-10 58

SLIPPERYROCK61Amanda Nero 2-8 0-0 5, Julie Molloy 3-12 2-2 10, Nikki Presto 2-2 2-2 8, Chere' Marshall 5-9 2-4 13, KellyAnn Staudinger 4-9 2-5 10, Kara Spagnola 0-0 0-0 0, Alissa Schake 0-0 0-0 0, Renee Watson 0-1 0-0 0, Haley Gaidosh 0-2 0-0 0, Sandra Busser 2-2 2-4 7, Nijha McNeely 2-2 3-4 8. Totals: 20-47 13-21 61

Halftime score: SRU 31, Fairmont State 20

3-point goals: Vavrek 5, Scotchel, Holestine; Nero, Molloy 2, Presto 2, Marshall, Busser, McNeely;

Rebounds:Fairmont State 41 (Cornish 7), SRU25 (Marshall 6);

Turnovers:Fairmont State 14, SRU17

Monday: Mercyhurst atSRU, 7 p.m.