JEFFERSON TWP — When the Slippery Rock High School offense is balanced and humming, the Rockets can be difficult to stop.

The Knoch girls basketball team found that out the hard way Monday night.

Sedona Campbell scored 14 points despite spending some time on the bench with four trouble and Steph Croll was 4-for-5 from behind the arc for 12 points as Slippery Rock jumped out to a big early lead and cruised to a 55-30 win over the Knights.

“We kept saying to them, just keep sticking to the office and execute,” said Slippery Rock coach Amber Osborn. “We’re just trying to use each game to get into a rhythm and a good mesh.”

Slippery Rock (2-1) was in a good rhythm early.

After Knoch (1-2) scored the first two points of the game, the Rockets scored the next 16 points.

Croll hit three of her four 3-pointers in the first quarter.

“It’s fun whenever she’s shooting well and hitting her shots,” Osborn said.

It was far too deep a hole for the Knights to climb out of.

“It was a slow start and it was the same thing that happened in our first game against Montour,” said Knoch coach Chris Andreassi. “We cannot allow that to be a habit.”

Slippery Rock led by 20 at the half, 33-13.

With Campbell on the bench in stretches in the second quarter, sophomore Emma McDermott filled in nicely.

McDermott scored six of her eight points in the second quarter.

“Emma has been doing really well the last few games,” Osborn. “She’s really focused on listening and making adjustments and she’s taking that to the floor. She’s been a pleasure to coach. She’s really eager to learn and she’s young and has so much potential.”

Knoch was able to cut the Slippery Rock lead to 38-25 in the third quarter, but the Rockets quickly erased that momentum with a run of their own after a timeout by Osborn.

“I told them that we had to get it together,” Osborn said. “We were looking too much at the scoreboard. I told them we have to play all the time like it’s a tie games.

“Knoch plays hard,” Osborn added. “They forced us to do things we weren’t comfortable with, but I thought we adjusted well and didn’t let them go on any huge runs.”

Macy McCall also added nine points for the Rockets.

Knoch didn’t have a player reach double-digits in scoring.

Casey Kretzer and Emily Fraser each scored eight points and Carly Burdett added seven for the Knights.

For Andreassi in his first year as coach, the main goal is getting his team to have confidence in themselves.

“First and foremost we need to see that effort and we got that effort tonight,” Andreassi said. “We just have to believe in ourselves and trust that with our hard work and with our effort good things are going to happen. We have to trust the whole process.”

SLIPPERY ROCK 55

Steph Croll 4-5 0-0 12, Elena McDermott 2-5 0-1 4, Bailey Boyd 2-5 0-0 4, Macy McCall 4-7 1-3 9, Sedona Campbell 6-10 1-4 14, Emma McDermott 4-8 0-0 8, Hannah Willison 1-3 0-0 2, Julia Steele 0-1 0-0 0, Jenna Heitzenrater 1-3 0-0 2. Totals: 24-47 2-8 55.

KNOCH 30

Casey Kretzer 3-10 0-0 8, Emily Fraser 4-14 0-2 8, Gabby Fennel 1-5 3-4 5, Carly Burdett 3-10 1-2 7, Kayla Grafton 1-3 0-0 2, Anna Neff 0-0 0-0 0, Sabine O’Rorke 0-1 0-0 0, Kayla Edwards 0-0 0-0 0, Sadie Siegel 0-0 0-0 0, Hannah Rowe 0-0 0-0 0, Abbey Shearer 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 12-45 4-8 30.

Slippery Rock 16 17 9 12 — 55

Knoch4 9 10 7 — 30

3-point goals: Slippery Rock 5 (Croll 4, Campbell), Knoch 2 (Kretzer 2)

Wednesday: Conneaut at Slippery Rock

Thursday: Knoch at Mars