SLIPPERY ROCK - Nine points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Not a bad stat line for an individual player in the first half.

Not so good for a team, however.

Those were the numbers turned in by the Grove City High School boys basketball team in a miserable first half filled with missed shots, squandered opportunities and a lot stunned looks from Eagles players and fans.

Before the shock had ample time to set in, it was 26-9 at halftime - a hole too deep and too dark to crawl out of in a 59-42 loss to Franklin in the District 10 Class AAA championship game at Morrow Field House Friday night.

"This was by far the worst we shot all season," said Grove City coach Don Fee. "Hey, it happens. You just don't want it to happen in the District 10 title game."

But it did, and with each shot that rimmed out, with each lane to the basket closed like a vice around them by the smothering Franklin defense, the Eagles fell further and further behind.

Grove City was just 4-of-21 from the floor in the first 16 minutes.

"Jeez, we had layups that rolled out," Fee said.

But almost nothing rolled out or went awry for the Knights (24-1) in the first half.

Franklin shot 9-of-15 in the first two quarters. It led 9-1 after five minutes of play, 14-3 at the end of the first quarter and 21-5 midway through the second period.

"Not much went wrong in the first half," said Franklin coach Steve Shingledecker, underlining the obvious in a thick, black magic marker. "We knew they were going to get some looks; we just wanted to contest them. That's all you can do."

Grove City did a fair share of forcing shots in the first half, but the Eagles made some headway in the second half and showed a brief glimmer of hope.

The Eagles' Ben Husband hit a 3-pointer at the start of the second half and fired up another one a possession later but missed. Had it fallen through the net, the Franklin lead would have been less than 10.

The Eagles made another push late in the frame, cutting the lead to 11, but they got no closer.

The mini-rallies had Shingledecker thinking of last year, when Slippery Rock came back from a 16-point deficit in the second half to win on the same Morrow Field House floor.

Franklin learned from that experience, but the learned even more from similar experiences this season as the team that made big comebacks.

"I think if we learned anything from those games, looking at it from the other end, you have to still try to score," Shingledecker said. "I think some of the teams who played us tried to stall and didn't get aggressive enough."

Franklin didn't have to try to score. Grove City was in full foul mode and sent the Knights to the line en masse in the fourth quarter.

The Knights hit 16-of-24 from the line in the final period and 20-of-28 in the game. They also took only 28 shots from the floor in the contest.

"We had to start fouling," Fee said. "They just widened the gap. There are too many things you have to wish for and you have no control over when you are in that situation."

All is not lost for the Eagles, though. They still have a date in the PIAA playoffs with Yough at a time and site to be determined.

That tempered the defeat a bit.

"It helps a lot," Fee said. "I'm real proud of these seniors as well as the rest of the guys. I'm looking forward to another week of practice and hopefully more with them."

GROVE CITY 42

Ben Husband 5-14 1-2 12, Ryan King 5-13 3-6 14, John Fee 0-0 0-0 0, Jordan Fee 4-13 0-0 8, Dustin Van Hook 1-3 0-0 2, Justin McNamara 0-2 0-0 0, Dan Keil 0-0 0-0 0, Andy Geibel 0-1 0-0 0, Tony Aloisio 3-5 0-0 6, Ben Liebling 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 18-51 4-8 42

FRANKLIN 59

Guiseppe Barone 5-7 5-8 20, Patrick Kahle 0-2 6-6 6, Jude Urda 3-3 2-2 9, Jake Hasson 2-6 0-2 4, Nate Byham 5-8 3-4 13, Matt Reitz 0-0 1-2 1, Bill Klinger 0-1 2-2 2, Mark Shouey 1-1 1-2 4, Bryan Crawford 0-0 0-0 0, Cody Monarch 0-0 0-0 0, Dustin McElhatten 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 16-28 20-28 59

3-point goals:

Husband, King, Barone 5, Urda, Shouey