Boxscore

IUP used a late-game surge to pull away from Slippery Rock for a 64-52 victory that put the Crimson Hawks in second place in the PSAC West.

Darryl Webb (Elkridge, Md./Long Reach) scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for his 11th double-double of the season and 49th of his career to help IUP improve to 16-5 overall and 7-2 in the PSAC West, one-half game ahead of the Rock, which is 17-7 and 7-3 in the division. IUP holds the tiebreaker over Slippery Rock on the strength of its season sweep.

The Crimson Hawks trail only Mercyhurst in the PSAC West standings. The Lakers put their perfect 9-0 division mark on the line later tonight at California. IUP has played one fewer game than the rest of the leaders as a result of a postponement at Lock Haven that will be made up on Monday, February 21.

Scooter Renkin (Midlothian, VA/Blue Ridge) matched his career high with 13 points and established a career-best with nine rebounds while Ashton Smith (Scarborough, ON/West Hill Collegiate) came off the bench to add 12 points. Smith was questionable for the game after suffering a foot injury in the win over California on Wednesday.

Julian Sanders (Medford, NJ/Shawnee) entered the game needing only 13 points to reach 1,000 in his career, but missed all four of his 3-pointers and was limited to four points.

Maron Brown had game highs of 24 points and 16 rebounds and Devin Taylor had 11 points for Slippery Rock, which has lost four in a row to IUP. The Rock shot only 35.2 percent from the field and scored only two points in the final 2:51 after trailing only 55-50 at that mark.

The first half was a back-and-forth period that included 10 lead changes and five ties and neither team led by more than IUP's 33-28 margin at halftime. Slippery Rock started the second half on an 8-0 run and held the Crimson Hawks scoreless for the opening 4:32 until Kevin Stewart (Philadelphia, Pa./Academy Park) hit a jumper.

That basket triggered a 9-1 IUP run that gave the Crimson Hawks the lead for good. Smith put IUP in front with two free throws, and a tip-in and foul shot by Marcel Souberbielle (Montevideo, Uruguay/Uruguayan American School) with 11:09 remaining made it a 42-37 game in favor of the Crimson Hawks.

IUP was clinging to a 48-45 lead when Renkin gave the Crimson Hawks some breathing room with a pair of free throws followed by a three-point play that made it an eight-point game with under four minutes left. Brown made it 55-50 with his own three-point play, but 16 seconds later Webb hit a jumper and was fouled, converting the free throw for a 58-50 cushion.

The lead eventually mushroomed to as high as 13 in the final minute on baskets by Smith and Sanders.

The win was IUP's 20th against only three losses in PSAC West play over the past two seasons, and the Crimson Hawks are 30-7 in division play the last three years. IUP is also four wins shy of its third straight 20-win season, a feat that has been accomplished only twice before in school history.

IUP returns home to face Edinboro on Wednesday at 7:30.