The Rocket

Issue date: 1/18/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Joey Kennedy Junior Joe Vines pulls up for a jumper late in the first half of the Rock's 83-68 loss to Edinboro Wednesday night. Vines scored eight points as the Rock dropped its ninth straight game to fall to 2-13 on the year. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Joey Kennedy Rock guard Darnell Johnson pressures an Edinboro player during Wednesday night's PSAC West opener for both teams. Johnson had nine points and seven assists in the loss. [Click to enlarge]

The Slippery Rock men's basketball team followed a familiar trend all through winter break and right on into the new year: Start strong, finish behind.

The Rock continued this trend on Wednesday at Morrow Field House, falling to an impressive Edinboro University squad, 83-62. The loss marked the ninth in a row and eighth this season by double digits.

The Rock started out hot, taking an early 14-7 lead before the Fighting Scots started to nail shots from everywhere on the floor to tie the score at 22-22.

From that moment, the Rock lacked enthusiasm as Edinboro went on a 24-6 run, knocking down three 3-pointers to make the halftime score 46-28. Edinboro shot 9-for-18 for the game from 3-point range.

The Rock's opponents going on big runs has been a regular occurrence and a big problem for the Rock this year, freshman Cory Somerville said.

"We are working on handling the runs in practice, but we need to stop them," he said.

Head Coach Jamal Palmer said the team is prepared for the game, but not following through on the scouting reports.

"We have a game plan for every game and it works," Palmer said. "We started off good, then they start to make some shots and we put our heads down. We've got to have the same attitude either way."

The Rock shooters went cold in the last part of the first half, shooting 3-for-9 from the floor to finish with a 41.9 shooting percent for the first half.

"We have it on our board in the locker room to shoot the ball with confidence," Palmer said. "It's that just one player has had the hot hand, (and) we need everyone to shoot the ball with confidence and knock down shots."

Edinboro kept the pressure on the Rock, creating eight turnovers in the second half, several of them coming from careless passes that gave the Fighting Scots several open lay-ups for easy points.

"We preach strong ball handling, it's down in the locker room on the wall to be strong with the ball, but we are just not doing that," Palmer said.

The Fighting Scots would not let the Rock get within 12 points in the second half while increasing their lead to as much as 24.

Redshirt freshman Jade Burka led the team with 12 points and seven rebounds while junior Darnell Johnson added nine points and seven assists. Johnson also had six turnovers.

The nine-game losing streak has not affected team morale, Johnson said.

"We are still playing as a team," Johnson said. "We just need to bring it together better."

The Rock bench put forth a good effort, going 9-fo-20 from the floor. Joseph Vines chipped in eight points off the bench.

This loss was the first in PSAC-West divisional play for the Rock, which has yet to defeat a PSAC opponent.

The Rock will travel to Lock Haven on Saturday to face the Bald Eagles, who picked up their first win over Shippensburg on Wednesday. The Rock men will then travel to IUP to take on the Crimson Hawks on Wednesday.

"We've got to play hard. We can beat both Lock Haven and IUP and gain some confidence and come out two and one in the division," Palmer said. "We are not a bottom team in the PSAC-West, but we have got to beat them."

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