EDINBORO, Pa. – For the depleted Edinboro men's basketball team, it was another night of being oh-so-close to upsetting a PSAC playoff team. A week ago, the Fighting Scots rallied from an 18-point second-half deficit to defeat Gannon, 78-77. Tonight, they trailed Slippery Rock by as many as eight points in the second half before taking a two-point lead. But The Rock would score five of the game's final six points to hand Edinboro a 64-60 defeat at McComb Fieldhouse.
 
Edinboro fell to 7-18 overall and 5-16 in the PSAC West with a game remaining on Saturday against Clarion. Slippery Rock, already in the PSAC Tournament but still battling for seeding, improved to 14-13 and 10-11, respectively.
 

Edinboro once again suited up just seven players due to injuries, with second-leading scorer and rebounder Mikael Anderson sitting out for the fifth time in the last eight games. Making matters worse, third-leading scorer Sheldon Brogdon was held without a point.
 
Despite that, head coach Pat Cleary received another spirited effort. Jaymon Mason led the way with 28 points, his 14th 20-point effort of the season. The redshirt junior guard moved into fifth place in career scoring with 1,513 points, and has scored 579 points this season, good for seventh in a season. Mason added six assists and five rebounds while playing all 40 minutes for the 14th straight game.
 
Maceo Baston added 13 points, six rebounds and three steals, while Andre Frederick came off the bench to score 10 points (4-of-4 FGs, 2-of-2 FTs) in 19 minutes. Jon Girvin added six points and eight rebounds as the duo provided Edinboro with strong play in the paint.
 
Slippery Rock featured three players in double digits, with Naquil Jones making four 3-pointers to finish with 19 points. Khyree Wooten also made four three's and ended the night with 15 points, while Christal Malalu had 13 points and 12 rebounds.
 
The game featured six ties and four lead changes. The Rock jumped out to a 31-20 lead, the largest lead of the night for either team, with just under six minutes left in the first half. Edinboro would close the gap to 33-28 at intermission.
 
SRU would build the lead back to eight points at 43-35 with just over 13 minutes remaining, but over the six minutes Edinboro outscored The Rock, 16-6. When Jaymon Mason dropped in three free throws after being fouled on a three, the Fighting Scots took their first lead of the night since five minutes into the game at 51-49.
 
As luck would have it though, Wooten banked in a 3-pointer as the shot clock was expiring to put The Rock back up 52-51. Baston made one-of-two free throws on Edinboro's next possession, but Slippery rock took the lead for good on a jumper by Vinny Lasley.

That began a run of six straight points for The Rock as they took a 58-52 lead with 3:21 to play. Mason's drive cut the lead to 58-54. Wooten made one-of-two free throws with just under two minutes left, and when Baston hit a jumper the Scots had pulled to within 69-56 with 1:44 remaining.
 

The Scots were able to force a turnover, and Mason's jumper in the paint cut the deficit to just a point at 59-58 with 1:04 left. With the shot clock again winding down, Wooten hit his fourth three to make it 62-58. A Mason layup made the score 62-60 with 23 seconds to play.
 
The Fighting Scots were then forced to foul, and with only three team fouls, the clock would go down to 17 seconds before The Rock hit the bonus. Jones made one of two free throws for a 63-60 lead. Mason would drive into the paint, but he would stumble and eventually turned the ball over trying to pass it to Frederick.  Malalu made one of two free throws with five seconds left for the final margin.
 
The deliberate contest saw Edinboro shoot 45.3 percent from the floor (24-of-53) compared to 43.1 percent for SRU (25-of-58). However, The Rock made 8-of-18 3-pointers while Edinboro was just 3-of-16 from beyond the arc. The Fighting Scots actually outrebounded SRU, the top rebounding team in the PSAC, in the first half, 17-15, but The Rock would win the battle of the glass in the second half, 24-13, for a 39-30 advantage in the game.