Slippery Rock men’s basketball took on Wheeling University on Wednesday for their third home game of the season. Coming out of the gate strong, Elijah Hill put up three points in the first two minutes of the first half for the White and Green. The Cardinals tried to come back with a three-pointer of their own but failed. A rebound and a layup came after that, all of which came up empty. The Rock took the rebound, bringing it back to their side of the court for a jumper, claiming the lead 5-0. Wheeling finally put points on the board with a three-pointer delivered by Ayden Goll. Both teams took turns throwing up shots, but Issac James succeeded with a layup for The Rock. After a number of turnovers and the Cardinals attempting to even the score, a steal from RJ Sledge allowed Ike Herster to put up two points in favor of Slippery Rock. Just a few seconds later, another steal from Sledge opened up the court for Herster to deliver another layup. Sledge, a freshman, achieved a season-high of three steals throughout the night. He was also SRU’s fourth-leading scorer, tallying nine points for himself. After the Cardinals added a three-pointer to their total in a chance to catch up, freshman Dame Givner took to the court again. Just over a minute later, Givner added two points, increasing The Rock’s lead to 13-6. Givner led the charge with the most points scored, tallying 24 in his 32 minutes of game time. The freshman reached multiple season-highs, including points made, minutes played and field goal attempts. “He has some strong explosive moves, some strong takes to the basket,” head coach Ian Grady said. Givner was not the only freshman to gain confidence with the team. Hill and Brady Mayo started for The Rock along with Givner. The three freshmen tallied 37 points throughout the game. “I thought the effort was there. They got good playing experience, and they played a lot in the first two games, too,” Grady said. The White and Green put 23 more shots up before heading into the locker room. The team came into the second half just as explosive as the first, with Herster delivering a layup in the first minute. The graduate student has put up 43 points in the season so far and ranks 12th in SRU history for three-pointers made. Slippery Rock and Wheeling took turns adding points to the board, with the Cardinals still in a 14-point deficit. The Rock went on a seven-point run, only letting Wheeling have one three-pointer. With over 12 minutes left, a dunk from Givner ignited the crowd. “I think when we’ve got energy in the stands, and we’ve got a lot of people in the student section, it’s a game changer for us,” Grady said. The Cardinals kept a close game, never falling further than 20 points behind. Their efforts were no match for Slippery Rock. In the minutes after the dunk, the White and Green put up 24 points behind 11 free throws, four layups, four jumpers, a three-pointer and another dunk. Slippery Rock secured the win 82-71. With a strong start to their season, Grady is focused on keeping that momentum going. “We’ve been playing hard, and we’ve had some great efforts,” Grady said. “But we need to stay grounded. We have to continue to improve and approach everything with an open mind.” Following the wins, Grady has surpassed his 100-game wins since being with The Rock. “The reason you have success and coaches have success is because of the players that you bring into the program,” he said. After finishing their home stand undefeated, Slippery Rock hits the road to take on Fairmont State University this Saturday.
https://www.theonlinerocket.com/sports/2025/11/21/givner-takes-over-as-rock-downs-wheeling/