2008 Woodie Awards
Men's basketball remains winless in conference
By Adam Brewer
Rocket Sports Editor
Issue date: 2/3/06 Section: Sports
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Unfortunately, heart doesn't always lead to victory.
The Rock dropped its 19th straight game to IUP 99-78 on Wednesday night.
"Most of all players are still hungry, but it's getting harder every week to give these guys some positive reinforcement because of the losing skid," coach John Marhefka said. "They are getting frustrated because in high school they were the big player and winning, now at the college level there are better players and a different style of play to adjust to."
The Rock (1-20 overall, 0-6 PSAC West) lost one more game to a more experienced PSAC West team in IUP (13-6, 2-3), despite four players scoring in double figures in the game.
Leading the Rock was sophomore guard Brandon Thompson with 14 points. Freshmen forward Joseph Vines chipped in 13 points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, while freshmen guards Matt Hale and Jamar Scales scored 10 points each.
The Rock scored the first basket of the game and that would be the only lead the team would have in the game.
The Rock tied the game at 9-9 at the 13:24 mark, but IUP would steamroll the rest of the half and had a 47-34 lead at intermission.
Despite trimming IUP's lead to nine points on two occasions, the Rock couldn't get back into the game. IUP took its biggest lead in the second half, leading by 28 points, 90-62, with four minutes left.
On Sunday, the Rock hosted the PSAC Western Division's first place team, Shippensburg. The Rock kept it close early, but Shippensburg would prevail in the 75-59 win.
"From top to bottom Shippensburg is a good, solid team," Marhefka said. "They have both speed and size, and more importantly they have a lot of guys with experience and have played in the PSAC for some years now."
Shippensburg pulled out to an 18 point lead, 43-25, with 15 minutes left in the game. The Rock trimmed the lead to nine, 56-47, but that was the closest it would get to Shippensburg.
Thompson led the Rock with a team-high 23 points in the losing effort. He shot 9-of-15 from the floor.
"We just have not been getting good shots from three point range and nobody has been consistent in their three point shot," Marhefka said. "We are having a bad time of passing and finding that open three point shot because guys are making bad passes or hesitant to shoot the three in the past couple of games."
The Rock will travel to California on Monday and Edinboro on Wednesday.
