SLIPPERY ROCK — The Slippery Rock High girls basketball team faced its first exam of the season.

The grade? Incomplete.

After cruising through their first three games with an average victory margin of nearly 43 points, the Rockets faced a much tougher foe at home against Hopewell Thursday night.

Slippery Rock led briefly in the third quarter, but the Vikings pulled away in the fourth for a 64-54 win.

"Unfortunately, that's the first game that has challenged us this season," said Slippery Rock coach Adrienne Orris. "We put these games on our schedule for a reason. We saw some weaknesses we need to still work on and will. It's better to play against competition than not."

Slippery Rock (3-1) shot poorly in the first half, sinking 33 percent of its attempts from the floor.

But the Rockets hung tough with Hopewell, thanks to a swarming defensive that made just about every Vikings shot a difficult one.

Hopewell (4-0) led 29-21 at the half, but it had to work for nearly every point.

Meanwhile, two of Slippery Rock's most potent shooters were scuffling.

Karly and Kourtney Rhoads, both senior guards and both headed to Kentucky Wesleyan next season, combined to make just 4-of-14 shots in the first half.

"I think we were fortunate neither one was on in the first half," said Hopewell coach Jeff Homziak.

That changed in the third quarter as the twins helped propel Slippery Rock on a 21-12 stretch to take a brief 42-41 lead.

Hopewell closed the quarter on an 8-0 run and never led by fewer than seven points the rest of the way.

"It was nice we could stay in the game when we were off," Orris said. "We haven't had any team put any kind of pressure on us when we shoot."

Once the Rockets adjusted to having a hand in the face of their shooters, shots started to fall.

Karly Rhoads finished with 20 points and Kourtney Rhoads had 15. Adele Campbell pitched in seven points and eight rebounds for the Rockets.

Elise Farris scored 17 points to lead Hopewell. She scored 13 of those points in the third quarter as the Vikings withstood the Rockets' charge.

"We have five seniors. They do what needs to be done," Homziak said. "We needed Elise tonight. I needed her to step up and she did."

Samantha Fisher added 12 points and Paige Alviani 11 for the Vikings. Freshman Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, who came into the game as the team's leading scorer, was held to nine points.

While Orris said there is still a lot of work to do as the team marches toward the tough region schedule, she saw enough signs in the Rockets' first real test of the season to be encouraged.

"We have been focusing on our defense for the last three years here," Orris said. "We're still not where we want to be. But we're getting to where we want to be. We were weak a little bit, but we'll get over that."

HOPEWELL 64Amanda Tocci 2-7 0-2 4, Isabella Vavrek 0-0 0-0 0, Elise Farris 6-10 4-9 17, Paige Alviani 3-9 5-6 11, Olivia Bonavita 3-4 1-4 8, Samantha Fisher 6-7 0-2 12, Lindsey McKay 1-1 0-0 3, Shatori Walker-Kimbrough 4-13 1-1 9.

Totals: 25-47 11-24 64.

SLIPPERY ROCK 54Karly Rhoads 9-19 1-1 20, Ali Doyle 0-1 0-0 0, Kourtney Rhoads 5-14 0-2 15, Adele Campbell 3-5 1-3 7, Sarah Cessar 1-8 0-0 2, Taylor Crocker 2-4 0-1 6, Bre Northcott 1-3 4-6 6, Morgan Siebka 0-0 0-0 0.

Totals: 21-51 6-13 54.

Hopewell 12 17 20 15—54Slippery Rock 9 12 21 12—643-point goals: Hopewell 2 (Farris, Bonavita); Slippery Rock 5 (Ka. Rhoads, Ko. Rhoads 3, Crocker).

Wednesday: Erie McDowell at Slippery Rock