SLIPPERY ROCK — Moving toward the basket was going to be difficult for the Slippery Rock girls basketball team with 6-foot-1 senior center Heidi Langhorst patiently waiting to block their shots.

Our Lady of Sacred Heart’s blockade played a key role in the Rockets’ 47-41 non-region loss Saturday afternoon at home.

Slippery Rock, which lost 6-0 guard/forward Marissa Siebka and 5-11 center Sedona Campbell for the season, doesn’t have the size to score consistently in the paint or guard Langhorst, who finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

Macy McCall, a 5-6 freshman, regularly plays in the post on offense.

“We needed to move the ball a lot,” said McCall, who finished with one point and three rebounds. “If we got the ball inside, we had to get it back out because they would clamp it. I felt this is the best game we’ve played against a zone.”

Learning how to score inside the arc is what Rockets coach John Tabisz is working toward.

Slippery Rock stayed close to the Chargers (11-3) by making seven 3-pointers.

What Tabisz would like to see is more trips to the free-throw line. Being confident in shooting and attacking is the first step.

“Once those shots start going in, you start learning to get yourself square and not shy away from contact,” said Tabisz, who noted Sippery Rock attempted five free throws. “It’s going to start going in and you’ll get fouled. It may not happen this year, but it will happen.”

The Chargers’ balance between Langhorst and guard Courtney Alexander, who had 15 points and four rebounds, proved tough to stop.

OLSH made the opening basket on a 3-pointer from Jacqueline Matthews that started a 17-4 run.

The Chargers stretched their lead to a game-high 19 points, 27-8, with 3:04 left in the first half when Langhorst finished a layup underneath.

“We want to look for a mismatch and we felt like that was the mismatch we had, the most evident one,” Chargers coach Don Eckerle said. “Heidi’s a very good player, we want to get her the ball anyway.”

The Rockets missed their first eight shots and went nearly five minutes before Jenna Whitmer made a jumper.

Tabisz thought it was a matter of time before shots would start going in.

“We’re getting a little bit better passing the ball and getting the ball into position to shoot,” he said. “Jenna (Whitmer) got down on herself early and I told her just keep playing hard and they’ll start to fall.”

Slippery Rock used a 7-1 run before halftime to close the lead to 28-18. Sophomore Elena McDemott made two 3-pointers during the run.

“We made a lot of shots and penetrated,” McDermott said. “Not to the big girl, but mid-range so she couldn’t block our shot.”

Whitmer scored a game-high 21 points, making a trey with 5:23 left in the third to cut the gap to 30-23.

SR (7-5) got no closer until the last 20 seconds.

Steph Croll also finished with 11 points for the Rockets. McDermott was happy with how the Rockets played against the zone.

“We’re not as good against zone,” McDermott said. “Sometimes, we pass it away. But today we passed it way better.”

OLSH 47

Courtney Alexander 7 1-3 15, Tara Richardson 1 2-2 4, Jacqueline Matthews 1 1-2 4, Monica Colman 1 0-0 2, Heidi Langhorst 9 2-2 20, Bella Mara 0 0-0 0, Anna Lohman 0 2-2 2. Totals: 19 8-10 47.

SLIPPERY ROCK 41

Jenna Whitmer 8 3-3 21, Hannah Willison 0 0-0 0, Bailey Boyd 1 0-0 2, Macy MCall 0 1-2 1, Steph Croll 4 0-0 11, Elena McDermott 2 0-0 6. Totals: 15 4-5 41.

OLSH 17 11 9 10 — 47

Slippery Rock4 14 10 13 — 41

3-point goals: OLSH 1 (Matthews); Slippery Rock 7 (Croll 3, McDermott 2, Whitmer 2)

Monday: Oil City at Slippery Rock