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Sunday, 10:30 p.m.:  NCAA DII Tournament selection show

INDIANA, Pa. - East Stroudsburg University cut a 19-point deficit to six with just over two minutes left, but Slippery Rock held off the defending PSAC champion Warriors for a 68-59 win in the PSAC semifinals on Friday night at IUP's Kovalchick Center.

ESU (22-6), playing in its fourth straight PSAC Final Four, was led by 20 points and 10 rebounds from senior forward Duane Johnson, who played in his school record-tying 117th career game along with senior forward Terrance King.

Devin Taylor had 22 points and 14 rebounds and Gerald Brooks had 15 points and eight rebounds off the bench for Slippery Rock (22-7), which advances to the PSAC final for the second time in three years. The Rock will play IUP in the final on Saturday at 7 p.m. after IUP advanced with a 92-76 win over West Chester. IUP has won five PSAC titles since 2000, and SRU will be looking for its first PSAC championship since 1963.

ESU forced 20 turnovers and held its own on the glass with the nation's top rebounding team, but was unable to get much to fall at the offensive end. The Warriors were 15-for-57 (26.3 percent) after shooting 63 percent in a 102-44 win over Bloomsburg, and 53 percent in a 102-74 win over Mansfield in the PSAC semifinals. ESU made 25 three-pointers combined in the two wins, but was just 3-for-19 on Friday.

Sophomore guard Whis Grant, the PSAC East Athlete of the Year, scored all 13 of his points in the second half. King had 11 points and five rebounds after being forced to the bench with three fouls in the first half. Senior forward Gerald Bridges added six points.

ESU had rallied from a halftime deficit in all three of its wins on the way to last year's PSAC championship, but couldn't recover from a 35-20 margin against the Rock. SRU built its lead to 48-29 with 11:20 to go before the Warriors chipped into it with a 7-0 run, getting a three from Johnson, a layup from Grant and two free throws from senior guard Blair Ramsey.

Slippery Rock pushed it back to 54-39 with just over five minutes left when ESU got back in it with a 13-4 run. The Warriors got it to 10 a jumper by sophomore guard Matt Tobin, then Bridges had a steal and converted a three-point play to make it 58-51.

Johnson made 1-of-2 to cut the margin to six, but Brooks had a three-point play at the end of the shot clock to buoy SRU. The Warriors had a last push to trim an 11-point game to seven with 36 seconds left, but it wasn't enough.

ESU fell behind 11-2 early, but had rallied from an 11-0 deficit (and 32-26 halftime deficit) in an 84-72 win at Slippery Rock on January 11, the fourth game of a school record-tying 14-game winning streak. Grant scored 23 of his 28 points in the 2nd half, with ESU outscoring SRU 58-40 after intermission.

ESU is one of just nine teams to make four straight PSAC Final Fours in the last 30 years. The Warriors were trying to get to the third PSAC championship game in school history and won the previous two, in 1990 and 2012. Only two teams in the last 30 years - Edinboro (2005-06) and IUP (2010-11) - have won back-to-back PSAC championships.

The field of 64 teams for the NCAA Division II Tournament will be announced on Sunday night at 10:30 p.m. on ncaa.com. ESU was No. 6 in last week's Atlantic Region rankings with the top eight teams selected for the field.

Bowie State, not among last week's top 10, won the CIAA's automatic bid. West Liberty won the WVIAC Tournament, and the PSAC Tournament champion will also gain an automatic entry.

ESU has been selected to the NCAA Tournament in two of the last three seasons, receiving an at-large bid in 2010 and the automatic bid last year.


GAME NOTES
* Johnson and King tied Todd Painton (1988-92) for ESU's record of 117 career games. They both played in their 11th career postseason game, also a record.
* Johnson had his 7th career double-double, first of the season, and 3rd career 20-point, 10-rebound game.
* He moved into 7th at ESU with 1,339 career points and also went over 600 career rebounds (605), ranking 10th.
* He moved into 2nd at ESU with 366 career free throws made.
* King is 10th with 1,326 points and 7th with 688 rebounds.

* Grant, the PSAC East Athlete of the Year, has 899 career points - 17.3 ppg (468) this year, and 13.9 ppg (431) on last year's PSAC championship team. All-time leading scorer Jonathan Roberts (2,218 - 1986-90) had 921 points through 2 seasons.
* Grant scored 21 (19 in the 1st half) in Tuesday's quarterfinal win vs. Mansfield, his 10th 20-point game of the year and 15th of his career.

* ESU won the PSAC East regular season championship for the 3rd time in school history. The Warriors previously won PSAC East titles in 1992 and 2010.

* ESU was attempting to set up the first meeting between the last two champions (vs. IUP) for the first time since 1996 (IUP-Cal), or the first rematch of the previous year's title game, also since 1996.

* ESU and IUP were the 8th and 9th schools to make four straight PSAC Final Fours in the last 30 years. Edinboro had done it most recently, from 2005-08.
* Other schools to make four straight are Bloomsburg (1981-84), Lock Haven (1987-90), IUP (1993-96), California (1992-97 - 6 straight), West Chester (1998-01), and Bloomsburg (1998-02 - 5 straight).

* The Warriors advanced to the Final Four with a 102-74 win over Mansfield on Tuesday (Recap)

* ESU's 22 wins this year are the 3rd-most in school history. The Warriors were 24-6 in 2009-10, and 23-4 in 1972-73.

* ESU is 82-36 (.695) over the last 4 seasons - the best winning percentage in the PSAC East, 2nd-best in the PSAC and 3rd- best in the Atlantic Region.
* The Warriors' 82 wins the last 4 years are the most in school history. The 2010 and 2012 senior classes both won 76 games.