SLIPPERY ROCK — John Tabisz showed up to the Slippery Rock High gym at 5 p.m. and asked his players a simple question.

“Hey, guys? Are we nervous?”

“No” was the resounding answer.

It was then that Tabisz saw a resolve in eyes of the players on his Slippery Rock girls basketball team, a calm confidence that had the longtime coach thinking one thing heading into a key region clash against Hickory a few hours later.

They are ready.

“Tonight they took the team away from me,” Tabisz said. “They said, 'This is our team. Hop aboard.' The good teams will do that. The good teams will take it away from a coach and the coach can just go along for the ride.”

The ride was a relatively smooth one against the undefeated Hornets.

The Rockets (10-5, 5-0) jumped out to a 10-2 lead, held off a few Hickory charges and ended the Hornets' 63-game regular season winning streak with a 45-34 region win.

Hickory (15-1, 4-1) never led in the game and could only get as close as four to the lead at the end of the third quarter.

Slippery Rock senior guard Marissa Siebka was dominant, scoring 16 points and adding seven rebounds, six assists and six steals.

She also handled the Hickory pressure at point guard and played sound defense on Hickory's ultra-quick guard Neely Whitehead.

“You saw what Marissa is capable of doing,” Tabisz said. “It's the best game she's played, it's not even close. She had (16 points), but that was probably the fourth-best thing she did. She glided back on their dribbles. She controlled the tempo. She rebounded. And she's still not in 100 percent shape yet. She gutted it out.”

Siebka had her best stretch when her team needed it the most.

The Gannon University recruit scored 10 points in the third quarter to help Slippery Rock maintain its lead over hard-charging Hickory.

In the fourth quarter with a double-digit lead, Siebka expertly handled the ball as the Rockets milked precious time off the clock.

“That's how you dominate a game,” Tabisz said. “She was the best player on the court.”

Sedona Campbell got Slippery Rock off to its hot start with eight of her 12 points in the first quarter. She did it with some slick moves in the post.

Her play helped the Rockets build a 10-2 lead early and maintain a 21-14 lead at the half.

“Sedona came to work,” Tabisz said.

Slippery Rock led by as many as 13 midway through the fourth quarter.

Hickory could not whittle that lead down to single digits and was hurt when Whitehead fouled out late.

Whitehead scored 11 points. Jordan Wilson led Hickory with 12 points.

“They came out very strong and they got us on our heels early,” said Hickory coach Jeanette Whitehead. “I was really proud of our girls — we didn't stop the fight — it was just too much to overcome.”

Whitehead said her team was never focused on the long regular-season winning streak.

“It was never the talk in the locker room,” Whitehead said. “But as far as these girls go, they were very much a part of it and they kept going strong for 15 more games. Now, as we take a step back, it's all good. We just have to continue to build.”

Siebka said the building of the Rockets was done during the difficult non-region schedule they played to start the season.

It paid dividends against Hickory.

“We'd rather lose to a good team by one than beat a bad team by 50 going into the region season,” Siebka said. “That was sort of our mentality. We didn't want to have that in the beginning and then not know how to play a Hickory or a Grove City.”

Siebka said this was the best all-around game Slippery Rock has played this season. After the game when they broke the huddle, they all uttered one short phrase.

“Take it.”

And that's exactly what the Rockets did.

“We made most of our shots, we worked the ball and were all running fast,” Siebka said, smiling.

Siebka was also running fast. She showed no ill effects from a torn ACL suffered a little more than a year ago.

“I feel like I need to get in better shape, then I'll feel like I'm back to 100 percent,” Siebka said. “I don't want to say I am back to where I was last year. I want to say that I'm trying to get back and be better than I was last year.”

Slippery Rock now stands atop the Region 5-AAA standings.

Not bad for a team that had almost as many question marks as healthy players heading into the season.

“We know we've been improving and we had nothing to lose tonight,” Siebka said. “We just came excited to play and ready to play. That's when you play the best basketball — when you're not nervous. We played the way we are capable of.”

HICKORY 34

Jillian Greebburg 0-2 0-0 0, Marissa deJulia 1-3 3-4 6, Neely Whitehead 2-16 7-9 11, hannah Atkins 1-4 0-2 2, Jordan Wilson 6-8 0-0 12, Izzy DeJulia 0-1 0-0 0, Hannah Crow 0-0 0-0 0, Jessica White 0-3 0-0 0, Carly Brest 1-2 1-1 3. Totals: 11-40 11-18 34.

SLIPPERY ROCK 45

Marissa Siebka 6-9 3-8 16, Bailey Boyd 1-2 0-1 2, Macy McCall 1-3 2-2 4, Steph Croll 3-6 0-1 7, Sedona Campbell 6-10 0-0 12, Elena McDermott 1-2 0-0 2, Lilly Weitzel 0-1 0-0 0, Emma McDermott 0-0 0-0 0, Hope Schnell 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 19-35 5-12 45.

Hickory 11 3 15 5 — 34

Slippery Rock12 9 14 10 — 45

3-point goals: Hickory 1 (M. DeJulia); Slippery Rock 2 (Siebka, Croll)

JV: Hickory 50-43

Thursday: Slippery Rock at Meadville