GROVE CITY — The qualities that have the Grove City boys basketball team inching closer to a region title were on full display Tuesday night.

Junior guard Isaac Thrasher led a balanced scoring effort with 15 points and the Eagles' defense forced 27 turnovers in a 67-34 victory over visiting Slippery Rock.

Grove City (11-3 overall) sits alone atop the District 10, Region 5 standings with a perfect 8-0 record. The Eagles had defeated the Rockets on the road 59-35 Dec. 23.

“There are two things we have done really well this year,” said Eagle coach Jeff Loughry. “One is share the ball. We have no player averaging double figures in points. The other thing is, defensively, we are buying in for 32 minutes.”

That defense swarmed the Rockets in the first quarter, forcing Slippery Rock into 12 turnovers in the period, after which Grove City led 24-8.

“Turnovers have not been a problem for us recently,” said Slippery Rock coach Randy Armagost. “We played Farrell and had six, but Grove City does play real aggressively on defense.

“We have not been shooting the ball well,” he added. “The last couple of weeks, we're barely shooting 20 percent as a team.”

Getting shots to fall was not a problem for Grove City on Tuesday. For the game, the Eagles shot 55 percent (28-of-51) from the floor.

“I thought our defense was getting consistently better before tonight,” said Armagost. “Maybe Grove City is in our heads. We didn't do too many things right tonight.”

Logan Lutz added 10 points for Grove City while Andrew Mason and Martin Beatty both scored nine.

“We lost 30 points per game last year with the graduation of Kaiden Young and Brendan Record,” said Loughry, “but I knew if the kids bought in, the offense would come around and it has.”

Senior guard/forward Ryan Dutton paced the Rockets (4-13, 1-7) with 15 points. His second bucket of the game, which came with 5:30 left in the first quarter, gave him 1,000 points for his varsity career.

“Congratulations to Ryan on a tremendous career,” said Loughry. “You would have thought his team was winning with the way he battled out there.”

Though Grove City is in good position to win its first region title since the 2011-12 season, Loughry knows there is still work to be done.

“Our next three games are on the road against (region foes) Sharon, Hickory and Farrell,” he said. “I'm calling it the Shenango Valley Gantlet.”

SLIPPERY ROCK 34

Hunter Prementine 1 1-2 3, Jeff Bennett 2 0-0 5, Luke Brandon 1 0-0 2, Ryan Dutton 6 3-7 15, Nick Wherthey 2 0-0 5, Rod Williams 2 0-1 4, Justin Heitzenrater 0 0-0 0, Sean Northcott 0 0-0 0, Logan Croll 0 0-0 0, Oliver Valeria 0 0-0 0, Nick Stutz 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 4-10 34.

GROVE CITY 67

Qadir Muhammad 1 0-0 2, Isaac Thrasher 6 0-0 15, Kameron Patterson 0 2-2 2, Marcus Cintron 1 0-0 3, Andrew Mason 4 0-0 9, Martin Beatty 4 1-2 9, Logan Lutz 5 0-0 10, Brayden Martin 2 0-2 5, Caden Mattocks 1 0-0 2, Kyle Barger 3 1-2 7, Jordyn Sutton 1 1-2 3, Brady Callahan 0 0-0 0. Totals: 28 5-10 67.

Slippery Rock 8 10 7 9 — 34

Grove City24 12 14 17 — 67

3-point goals: Slippery Rock 2 (Bennett, Wherthey); Grove City 6 (Thrasher 3, Mason, Martin, Cintron).

Today: Slippery Rock at Keystone

Friday: Grove City at Sharon