SLIPPERY ROCK — The Slippery Rock HighSchool girls basketball team wants to go places.

Playoff places. District 10 title game places. PIAA postseason places.

The Rockets took another step toward those destinations Monday night with a 62-50 win over Franklin.

"Every day I tell my girls there are no shortcuts to any place worth going," said Slippery Rock coach Adrienne Orris. "And we are going places."

The road to this victory had a slight detour.

Slippery Rock (10-8 overall, 5-2 in the region) fell behind 7-0 midway through the first quarter, missed their first five field goal attempts and looked out of synch on both end of the floor.

"We've gotten off to some slow starts," Orris said. "That seems to happen when we miss our first shot of the game. It wasn't totally unexpected."

Slippery Rock didn't stay down for long, though.

The Rockets went on a 10-0 run to start the second quarter and never trailed again.

Franklin spent the rest of the game chasing the Rockets — and almost caught them.

The Knights used the power of the 3-pointer to stay in the game, connecting on 10 of them.

Sadie Gravatt hit five and finished with 21 points and Britney Foust hit three more 3s and scored 16 points for the Knights.

"They have a couple of shooters," Orris said. "They were hot. They must have liked our new gym."

Franklin didn't like the same old Jence Rhoads.

The SlipperyRock High School senior guard had her usual all-around stellar game, scoring 20 points and dishing out eight assists.

In the second half, with her team clinging to a lead evaporating because of Franklin 3s, Rhoads played her best.

She scored six points and added five assists in the game's final 10 minutes.

"You could see it in her eyes," Orris said. "There was one point, when she thought she got fouled on a shot, when you could tell she was thinking, 'That's it. Game on.' When I saw that I thought there was no way anyone was going to stop her."

Not even with three Franklin defenders bearing down on her.

Rhoads deftly dribbled through them and pulled up for a jumper at the foul line. Later, she maneuvered through three Knight players again, then sent a perfect pass to freshman Sarah Cessar for an easy layup.

"Jence makes me smile every day," Orris said. "It's a joy watching her play sometimes. She knows the game and has a feel for the game and knows when we need it the most. That's when she comes through."

Rhoads now has 1,916 points in her career.

Slippery Rock had four players score in double digits — and three of them were freshmen.

Cessar and Kourtney Rhoads scored 11 points and Karly Rhoads added 10 points and five blocked shots for the Rockets.

FRANKLIN 50Nicole Cherry 2-6 1-2 5, Britney Foust 6-14 1-2 16, Shaniqua Law 1-3 0-0 3, Hope Aylesworth 1-3 0-0 3, Sadie Gravatt 8-22 0-0 21, Carissa Dolan 1-3 0-0 2, Megan Peiffer 0-1 0-0 0.

Totals: 19-49 2-4 50

SLIPPERY ROCK 62Jence Rhoads 7-11 6-6 20, Sarah Cessar 5-8 1-2 11, Emma Walter 0-1 0-0 0, Karly Rhoads 4-10 0-1 10, Kourtney Rhoads 4-9 2-3 11, Jenna Rinker 2-6 2-2 6, Adele Campbell 2-2 0-0 4, Ali Doyle 0-0 0-0 0.

Totals: 24-47 11-14 62

Franklin 15 11 13 11—50SlipperyRock 11 17 20 11—623-point goals: Franklin 10 (Foust 3, Law, Aylesworth, Gravatt 5); Slippery Rock 3 (Karly Rhoads 2, Kourtney Rhoads)

JV: Franklin 49-34

Thursday: Hickory at Slippery Rock