The Slippery Rock men’s basketball team was looking to avoid a five-game skid on Saturday against Gannon University in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) game to open their three-game home stand.
Dame Givner led the way for SRU, putting up 17 points along with two steals. The freshman now tallies 343 points in his first season so far. He moves into fourth place for most points scored by a freshman in program history, only three points away from taking third place.
Sheick Samoura also contributed to a double-digit performance, accumulating 11 points and one steal.
The Rock came out of the gate fighting for every opportunity and possession. Gannon was playing a full-court press from the tip, causing a very defensive and low-scoring start to the game.
The White and Green’s defense was strong in the beginning of the first, holding the Golden Knights to 18 points in the first 10 minutes.
Isaac James had an impressive game, scoring 10 points while also coming down with 12 rebounds, making his presence known and contributing to a handful of second chance points. The team also forced plenty of turnovers and had a total of 11 steals, three of those coming from Braylon Littlejohn.
The Rock held strong and the game picked up in the second half. Shots were beginning to fly with SRU shooting nearly 52% from the field in the second half, up from 33% in the first. Where they struggled from the arc, they made up for it in the paint, with 40 of their 65 points coming in the paint in various ways from various contributors.
Despite falling into an early deficit, the team shot just as well as Gannon. The Rock shot only 3% lower on 10 less shots, but fell short in receiving a significantly fewer amount of free throw attempts, with only 12 to Gannon’s 29.
Slippery Rock is looking to turn things around as they continue their three-game home stand on Saturday when they go up against University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in another PSAC head-to-head matchup. The White and Green currently sit at 13-8 overall, being 6-7 in conference play, and need to get back in the win column to sit at .500 in conference play.
