Edinboro, Pa. – The Edinboro men's basketball team dropped a hard-fought 83-81 decision to visiting Slippery Rock Wednesday night inside McComb Fieldhouse.
The Scots trailed 79-77 with 2:51 to play.
Cenker Evran tied the game with a pair of free throws at the 58 second mark. Day Waters put the Rock back up two, 81-79, with a bucket with 34 seconds on the clock. Evran again knotted the score, this time at 81, with two more free throws. Luke Howes hit a jumper with just 3.7 seconds showing on the clock and the Scots last second inbound was off the mark giving the Rock win.
Edinboro held a 44-38 lead at the half, but Slippery Rock came out of the break with a 9-2 run to take a 47-46 lead on a Waters triple. A
Bryce Baez free throw and
Michael Dunn trey put the Scots back ahead 50-47 at the 16:18 mark of the second half. The Rock came back with a 6-2 spurt of their own grabbing a 53-52 advantage on a Maceo Austin dunk.
Edinboro used a 14-9 run keyed by 10 points from Evran and capped by
Steve Kelly layup to take a 67-61 lead with 9:16 to play. Slippery Rock chipped away at the Edinboro lead and took the advantage back on a Waters triple at the 3:46 mark to go ahead 77-75. An Evran layup tied the game and Howes put the Rock back up 79-77 with a layup at the 2:51 mark.
The Rock got out to fast start taking an 11-4 lead on a Jomo Goings three-pointer with 14:16 left in the first half. An Evran tip-in made it 13-9, before Slippery Rock pushed the lead back out to 19-11 on a Goings layup at 11:23.
The Scots responded with an 18-4 run capped by an
Evan Berger 3-pointer with 6:16 on the clock to take a 29-23 lead. Edinboro's lead would swell to nine, 34-25, on a
Daunte Wilcott layup with 5:14 remaining. Back-to-back buckets by Ike Herster trimmed the lead to 34-29, but a layup by Evran and a Dunn jumper put the lead back out 38-29 at the 2:13 mark. Slippery Rock closed the half on a 9-6 spurt to make the halftime deficit 44-38.
Evran led the Scots with another double-double of 31 points and 16 rebounds including 12 offensive boards. Kelly added 17 points and Wilcott also reached double figure scoring with 13 points to go with five assists and four boards.
Austin led the Rock offense with 25 points and Waters chipped in 21. Howes finished the night with 18 points.
The Scots wrap up the regular season with a 3 p.m. tip against California (Pa.) in California on Saturday. The winner of Saturday's contest will be the number two-seed in the PSAC West and earn a bye next week's PSAC postseason.
