The crowds flocked to them. Opponents were amazed by them. They even amazed themselves.

The Rock Solid 15-and-under girls basketball team was the hottest thing going at the AAU national tournament last week at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

"It was way beyond my wildest expectations," said Rock Solid coach Posey Rhoads. "I was just hoping we wouldn't get knocked out in the first round, and we ended up going 5-0 and winning our pool."

That was no easy task for the team that is made up of players from Slippery Rock, Butler, Grove City, New Castle, Lakeview and Greenville. To win its pool, the Rock Solid team had to win five games in three days.

And they weren't ordinary games. They were grueling, 36-minute contests with a 30-second shot clock thrown in for good measure.

"It made for some fast-paced, long games," Rhoads said of the team of Jence Rhoads, Casey McCaffrey, Abby Basta, Amy Achesinski, Megan Spangler, Julie Ehrman, Julie Molloy, Sheena Aden, Nicole Cherry and Jaleesa Sams wasn't fazed by the harsh schedule, finishing fourth in the nation despite its inexperience in the biggest AAU tournament.

"We had breaks between our games," Jence Rhoads said. "We would go back to the hotel and sleep and get ready for our next one."

And there were plenty of next ones.

In the five games of pool play, they won three of them convincingly. Only the games against Maine and Ohio were in doubt late in those contests.

Maine was the No. 5 seed in the tournament that was 116 teams strong. Rock Solid, in its first year at nationals, was unseeded.

"It was like that line from 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,'" Posey Rhoads said. "They were saying, 'Who are these guys.'"

He was wondering the same thing.

As the wins kept piling up and the team drew closer to the final four, Rhoads was pondering just how far his team could go.

"We just kept winning," he said, a hint of surprise still in his voice. "It was a total team effort. We were pretty solid all the way down the line. We won our first game, then our second and so on and I was like, 'Whoa. What did you get us into, people?'"

Jence Rhoads was also wondering what she and her teammates had gotten into. As they played each game, the crowds around them swelled.

"We were thinking we might as well keep winning and go all the way," she said. "I usually try not to notice the crowds when I play, but it was nice to get that kind of support."

Posey Rhoads said teams and fans alike were shocked when they found out it was the team's first trip to nationals.

They were also drawn to Rock Solid's style of play - fast-paced, yet fundamentally sound. It was the perfect blend for the nationals.

"We don't look like much - we kind of look like the Bad News Bears - but we don't play like them," he said. "People were impressed by our fitness and the way we played."

After winning its pool, Rock Solid won four more games to get into the final four and came agonizingly close to earning a shot at a national championship.

But Rock Solid fell to a team from New York City by a slim margin.

"We were right there," Posey Rhoads said. "We have four or five good shots and the ball would not go in. We were that close to going on and playing for a championship."

The team from Shelbysville, Tenn., a squad that is a yearly staple at the event, won the tournament.

Rock Solid lost in its consolation game.

For Jence Rhoads, the experience was mind-boggling from the opening ceremony until the final game.

"It was pretty awesome," the point guard said. "Before the opening ceremony, we met all the girls on the team and exchanged key chains and pins and stuff like that. It was pretty fun meeting all the girls."

But not as much fun as winning.

Posey Rhoads is hoping to keep the team together for another run at it next year.

But he will never forget this year, when his team nearly won a national title on the same court where he played college basketball.

"It was unbelievable," he said. "I think the Demon Deacons were looking out for us."