SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. (February 28, 2015) – The Edinboro men's basketball team used a pair of second half runs to erase a double-digit deficit in a PSAC Tournament First Round matchup at Slippery Rock on Saturday night, but the host Rock was ultimately able to hold off the rallying Fighting Scots for a 64-60 victory at Morrow Field House. Edinboro closes the 2014-15 campaign with a 14-13 ledger, while The Rock improved to 20-9 and moves on to face top-seeded Gannon in the PSAC Quarterfinals.

 

Trailing by 10 points at 38-28 with 18:06 to play in the game, the Fighting Scots constructed a 10-1 run ignited by a Sam Sealy-James dunk on an assist by Henri Wade-Chatman to cut the Slippery Rock lead to one point at 39-38 at the 14:57 mark of the second half. Jaymon Mason added four points during the surge.
 
The Rock expanded its lead back to five points at 45-40, before Edinboro responded with an 8-3 spurt capped by a pair of Wade-Chatman free throws to knot the contest at 48-48 with just under 10 minutes remaining in the game.
 
Slippery Rock would answer with 10 straight points and 12 of the next 14 markers in all to build its lead to 10 points at 60-50 with 6:39 to play.
 
The Fighting Scots were once again resilient, answering with a 9-1 run keyed by eight points from Will Marrow to shrink The Rock's lead to just two points at 61-59 with 59 seconds showing on the clock.
 
Unfortunately for Edinboro, that is as close as the Fighting Scots would come, as Slippery Rock's Antonio Butler knocked down 3-of-4 free throws in the final minute of the game to seal the postseason victory for The Rock.
 
Wade-Chatman scored a game-high 20 points for the Fighting Scots, his 12^th 20-point scoring effort of the season. The junior guard connected on 6-of-16 shots from the floor, 2-of-6 3-pointers and 6-of-8 free throws.
 
Marrow notched his first career double-double with 15 points and a career-high 11 rebounds. He made 6-of-12 field goals, 1-of-2 shots from behind the arc and 2-of-3 tries from the charity stripe.
 
Mason tallied 14 points and tied a game-high with four assists. The redshirt freshman was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line.
 
Sam Sealy-James contributed nine points, nine boards and a game-high four blocked shots, while Casey Baker grabbed 10 rebounds for Edinboro.
 
Antonio Butler paced Slippery Rock with 19 points making 6-of-14 field goals in the winning effort. Desma Nicholson was the only other Rock player with 15 points off the bench, all coming in the first half on 5-of-6 shooting from behind the arc.

 
Edinboro held a 43-30 rebounding advantage over The Rock, who came into the game as the top rebounding team in NCAA Division II with a margin of +13.4 boards per game. The Fighting Scots posted an 18-6 edge in offensive rebounds, leading to a 16-7 advantage in second chance points. Edinboro became just the fourth team in 29 games to outrebound Slippery Rock this season.
 
The Fighting Scots shot 33.9 percent (21-of-62) from the field, including 20.0 percent (3-of-15) from behind the arc. Edinboro made 78.9 percent (15-of-19) of shots from the charity stripe.
 
Slippery Rock finished shooting 41.5 percent (22-of-53) from the field, 47.4 percent (9-of-19) from long range and 68.8 percent (11-of-16) from the free throw line.
 
The Fighting Scots jumped out to an early 8-2 lead after a Wade-Chatman jumper with just under 16 minutes remaining in the opening period.
 
The Rock countered with an 18-5 run to gain a 20-13 advantage with 9:37 to play in the first half. Slippery Rock would build its largest lead of the night of 11 points after a Nicholson 3-pointer at the 4:26 mark of the opening stanza, before holding a nine-point halftime advantage at 33-24.

Edinboro, who was making its first PSAC Tournament appearance since the 2012-13 campaign, had won three consecutive games coming into Saturday's contest.

Wade-Chatman closes the season with 511 total points, good for 15th in a single season in Edinboro history. The junior guard also ranks 38th on the Edinboro all-time scoring list with 870 career points.

Sealy-James' 66 blocked shots rank ninth in Edinboro history for a single season, while Mason's 86.8 free throw percentage is good for fourth-highest in a season at Edinboro.