SLIPPERY ROCK — The Slippery Rock boys basketball team may not win a district title this year nor qualify for the playoffs.

But on Friday night, the Rockets took a first step toward achieving those goals.

Slippery Rock used a stifling defense to defeat Moniteau 77-64 in the opening round of the Slippery Rock Tip-Off Tournament.

The Rockets were led by Zack Ejzak, who tallied 22 points and was a perfect 5-for-5 from the floor.

Slippery Rock opened the game using full-court pressure and caused the Warriors to turn the ball over. The Rockets took advantage of the turnovers and jumped to a 16-14 lead after the first quarter.

"We needed to press the whole game. We needed to dictate the pace of the game," said Slippery Rock coach Sean Strickland. "Whether it was ugly or what it looked like, we knew sooner or later our pace would wear them down."

The Rockets increased their lead to 44-24 at the end of the half behind the scoring of Matt Shearer, who had 14 points and was 5-of-6 from the floor and 4-of-5 from the foul line.

Moniteau cut into the Slippery Rock lead in the third quarter by using full-court pressure of its own that caused Slippery Rock to make mistakes.

The Warriors outscored the Rockets 26-13 in the quarter and narrowed the gap to 57-52 at the end of the third period.

However, Moniteau couldn't draw any closer and was outscored 20-12 in the final quarter.

"Our offense really struggled," said Moniteau coach Randy Armagost. "And I thought we played better in the second half than we did in the first half.

"(Slippery Rock) has been in the gym for three weeks and we have been in the gym for a week and I think this would be a heck of a game if we played them again a couple of weeks from now."

The majority of Moniteau's players were members of the Warriors football team that competed in the District 9 playoffs two weeks ago.

Moniteau's top scorers were Nick Morrow and Tyler Armagost, who tallied 15 points each.

Morrow drained three 3-point buckets to lead both teams.

Slippery Rock will face Mercyhurst Prep tomorrow in the championship game of the tournament while Moniteau will face Woodland Hills in the consolation game.

MONITEAU 64Matt Buczkowski 2 0-0 5 Nick Morrow 6 0-0 15 Adam Cousins 3 5-5 12 Josh Loos 5 2-5 12 Tyler Armagost 5 4-6 15 Aaron Randall 2 0-0 4 Josh Howard 0 1-2 1.

Totals: 23 12-18 64

SLIPPERY ROCK 77Rhett Gordon 2 4-4 8 Kendall Mahan 2 0-0 5 Brian Kelly 4 2-4 12 Zack Ejzak 5 12-16 22 Matt Shearer 7 5-6 19 Jarod Augostino 0 2-2 2 Vince Papley 1 0-0 2 Brant Sloan 3 0-0 7.

Totals: 24 25-32 77

Moniteau 14 12 26 12—64Slippery Rock 16 28 13 20—773-point goals: Moniteau, Morrow (3), Buczkowski, Cousins, Armagost. Slippery Rock, Kelly (2), Mahan, Sloan