MEADVILLE — Amber Osborn hates to lose.

“You can put it in capital letters,” said the Slippery Rock High girls basketball coach. “I HATE losing.”

This loss, in the District 10 5A title game to Warren Saturday afternoon at Meadville, was particularly loathsome to Osborn.

Slippery Rock picked a bad time to have a bad day.

The Rockets were uncharacteristically sloppy in the 59-44 defeat at the hands of the Dragons, committing seven turnovers in the game's first five minutes.

They didn't shoot well. And their aggressive, pressure defense, which usually rattles and discombobulates opponents to the point of surrender, was merely a nuisance to Warren.

Still, Obsorn managed to find a silver lining in a very dark cloud that descended over her team Saturday.

“I think getting their butts whooped was really good for them,” Osborn said. “I hate to say it. But, honestly, overall, they needed to get their butts beat to get them back into position.”

Slippery Rock (19-5) will also arguably get a better draw into the PIAA 5A playoffs. Warren will take on Oakland Catholic in the first round — the Dragons' reward for winning the district. The Rockets get second-place City League school Obama Academy next Saturday.

“Sometimes you don't win a district title and you go farther than teams that did win the district title,” Osborn said.

The coach used Mars as an example of that. Last year the Planets won a 5A state title despite getting knocked out of the WPIAL playoffs in the semifinals.

Still, Slippery Rock would have probably preferred to win its second-consecutive district title in its third straight trip to the championship game.

Warren (21-3), though, had other ideas.

The Dragons handled Slippery Rock's trapping defense almost to perfection and took advantage of Rocket miscues to build a 19-9 lead.

Further hampering Slippery Rock was the serious foul trouble sophomore guard Maryann Ackerman found herself in.

Ackerman picked up three fouls in the game's first seven minutes.

Still, Slippery Rock had its chances. After falling behind big, the Rockets rallied to cut the Warren lead to four with 50 seconds remaining in the half.

But another turnover — Slippery Rock's 11th of the first half — gave Warren one last shot and Riley Childress drained a 3-pointer to give the Dragons a 28-21 lead at the half.

That seven-point margin haunted the Rockets the rest of the game.

Ackerman returned to the floor in the third quarter and scored all 15 of the Rockets' points in the frame.

But Slippery Rock only cut into the Dragons' lead by two.

“Maryann played a heck of a game,” Osborn said. “She was like, 'Give me the ball. I'm going to the hoop.'”

But Osborn lamented that she picked up those early fouls and ended up fouling out in the fourth.

That's when Warren put the game away with 9-2 and 8-3 runs.

“The biggest thing is our team is athletic and we like to push,” said Warren coach Lisa LaVan. “We knew Slippery Rock was going to come at us. They're a great team.”

Warren prepared for the Slippery Rock pressure by practicing against seven players on the floor leading up to the game, LaVan said.

It worked.

Margo Loutzenhiser scored 20 points and Emma Ruhlman added 17 for the Dragons, who also got 12 from Childress.

Ackerman finished with 17 points and Hallie Raabe 11 for Slippery Rock, which was just 15-of-56 shooting from the floor.

“They have to handle the adversity and bounce back,” Osborn said.

WARREN 59

Taylor Childress 1-5 0-0 2, Alanna Hultberg 4-7 0-0 8, Riley Childress 3-5 3-4 12, Emma Ruhlman 8-14 1-2 17, Margo Loutenhiser 6-11 8-10 20, Kelsey Stuart 0-1 0-0 0, Teagan Paris 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 22-45 12-16 59.

SLIPPERY ROCK 44

Maryann Ackerman 6-16 2-2 17, Emma McDermott 0-12 0-0 0, Hallie Raabe 4-11 1-2 11, Ella McDermott 2-4 0-0 4, Anna Kadlubek 2-6 1-2 6, Michaella Roth 0-3 0-0 0, Bronwyn McCoy 1-4 4-4 6, Ashley Shea 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 15-56 8-10 44.

Warren 14 14 13 18 — 59

Slippery Rock7 14 15 8 — 44

3-point goals: Warren 3 (R. Childress 3); Slippery Rock 6 (Ackerman 3, Raabe 2, Kadlubek)

Saturday: PIAA Tournament-Slippery Rock vs. Obama Academy, 3 p.m., at Sharon