SLIPPERY ROCK — The Slippery Rock High School basketball team saw firsthand how winning in the summer can bolster a team's fortunes in the winter.

Last year, Slippery Rock hosted a summer league and advanced to the title game, but lost to Farrell.

All the Steelers did was go 23-4 before losing to eventual Class AA champion Jeannette in the state playoffs.

That was motivation enough for the Rockets this summer.

"We come into the gym every day with a chip on our shoulder," said senior forward Matt Shearer. "We saw what winning our tournament did for (Farrell) last summer."

Slippery Rock has played more than 50 games this summer.

Last year, Rockets coach Sean Strickland said he thought his team had a good offseason. That was until he saw the one his team put in this year.

"I think the big thing is a core of our guys are showing up to the gym every day working hard," the fourth-year coach said.

And they beat some teams they normally don't.

Slippery Rock played a few top- quality Class AAA and quad-A squads in its summer league and handled them all.

The Rockets beat Blackhawk 52-49 in overtime in the championship game.

Their only prizes were T-shirts, but senior guard Zach Ejzak said the team received something more precious.

"We got some confidence," Ejzak said.

That's a commodity that has been in short supply in the Slippery Rock gym in recent years.

Strickland took over a program that had lost most of its talent to graduation and went 2-22 during his first season.

The team improved to 5-19 in 2005-06 and came into last winter with high hopes to contend for a playoff spot in the region.

Those hopes were dashed by a midseason losing streak that contributed to a 6-17 season.

But this summer's success again has raised the Rockets' hopes — and expectations for this winter.

"I think we can build on this summer," Strickland said. "We beat some teams with much stronger traditions than us and we played in a lot of close games. Hopefully, that translated."

Strickland will have a veteran team and most of those three-year starters have been sweating it out in the gym.

Slippery Rock will have three three-year starters in the lineup — Shearer, Ejzak and Brian Kelly. All have turned in solid summers, Strickland said.

None of them want to see another losing record in their senior seasons. That's why this summer has been so important, Ejzak said.

"It was very disappointing losing last season," Ejzak said. "Losing is the worst thing in the world to me. We had some bad luck and other stuff happen to us that we don't want to let happen to us again.

Ejzak said he and the Rockets are eager to take the next step.

"We put in a lot of work last summer and we still didn't win," Ejzak said. "It showed us we have to work that much harder."

Shearer said he has seen a change in the team through their play this summer.

The hunger, he said, is there.

"It's been really tough," Shearer said. "But I think this is going to be our turnaround year."

If it is, the Rockets might be able to point to their summer success as the reason.