ROSS TWP - As Slippery Rock's Mike McCaffrey shuffled down the steps deep in the bowels of North Hills High School, he offered a short but succinct evaluation of the Moon boys basketball team.

"They're pretty good, huh?"

Yes, Mr. McCaffrey, they are.

After a slow start by Moon standards, the Tigers roared to a 15-3 run that turned a tight, two-point game into a comfortable cushion on the way to a 75-43 win over the Rockets in the first round of the PIAA Class AAA playoffs Friday night.

Slippery Rock (12-14) hung with the WPIAL champion for six minutes before Moon did what Moon does best: shoot well and run the floor.

"What you have to do with a team like Moon is hope to get them when they don't have one of their better nights," said Slippery Rock coach Chris Burtch. "They had one of their better nights."

Moon (27-1) shot 66 percent in the first half in building a 47-24 lead.

"We got guys right in their face," Burtch said. "They just get a little separation - any separation is good."

Four of Moon's five starters scored in double digits, with Ryan Helfrich and Zack Engle leading the way with 13 points each.

Rich Lee and Brett Hines came up big early for Slippery Rock, scoring the Rockets' first 12 points.

Moon coach Jeff Ackermann was concerned with how his team would treat Slippery Rock coming off a rousing WPIAL final win over Knoch a week earlier.

"(The Rockets) have some really good players," Ackermann said. "We were concerned about Lee and McCaffrey, and they were right there with us for a while. But we didn't treat them lightly."

The close game early did force Ackermann to use injured point guard Dominic Manno for five minutes of the second quarter. Manno scored seven points in that span to give the Tigers a lift.

"We didn't want to use him, but I didn't want this game to slip away," Ackermann said. "He played well."

McCaffrey finished with 16 points and Lee with 13 points for the Rockets, who saw their up-and-down season come to an end with three straight playoff defeats after a 16-point second-half comeback victory over Franklin in the first round of the District 10 playoffs.

"To put what this team did in perspective, this is only the second team to make the state playoffs at Slippery Rock since 1980," Burtch said. "When you think of what this team's legacy is, that is it."

SLIPPERY ROCK 43

Adam Benton 1-4 0-2 3, Mike McCaffrey 5-9 3-4 16, Rich Lee 5-19 0-0 13, Brett Hines 4-12 0-3 8, Bill Messer 0-1 0-2 0, Eric Greaves 0-4 1-2 1, Ben Collins 1-1 0-1 2, Tim Busi 0-0 0-0 0, John Black 0-1 0-0 0, David Hewitt 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Hoover 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 16-53 4-14 43

MOON 75

Duane Compo 5-10 1-2 11, Ryan Helfrich 6-8 1-2 13, A. Q. Shipley 3-7 3-4 9, Derek Gallagher 4-4 0-0 10, Zack Engle 5-13 0-0 13, Dominick Manno 3-3 0-0 7, Matt Yourd 0-0 0-0 0, M.J. Knight 1-2 0-0 2, Andy Dowdell 1-3 1-2 3, Drew Kurianowicz 1-2 0-0 3, Jeremy Pronto 0-1 0-0 0, Tyler Hersperger 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 30-55 6-10 75

3-point goals:

McCaffrey 3, Lee 3, Benton; Manno 2, Compo, Engel 2, Gallagher 2, Kurianowicz