ELYRIA, Ohio (Feb. 1, 2023) -- Rocky River has won 15 games this season and lost five. With a Wednesday setback against in a Great Lakes Conference Tournament semifinal against a powerful Elyria Catholic team, three of those five losses have come against one team.
A River team that hadn't come closer than 16 points in two previous meetings this season (54-34 loss at home Dec. 3, 54-38 loss at ECHS Jan. 6) gave it a game effort in Wednesday's contest. The Pirates were defeated 61-55. The six-point differential is by far the closest any GLC foe has played the Panthers, the league's West Division No. 1 seed in the tournament.
Elyria Catholic (16-3) led 11-3 through the early minutes of Wednesday's game against Rocky River, the West No. 2 seed in the brackets. The Pirates pushed back late in the first quarter, but the second frame would include a 14-1 run by the home five. The Panthers would go into halftime leading 32-23; their 14-1 run would loom large the rest of the evening.
In the third period, an impressive push by the Pirates got the visitors within three on a few occasions. Junior forward Ava Patti helped the River Raiders file a 14-point quarter. Patti scored all 14 points, and she would go on to have a historic box-score entry for the visiting five. But the Panthers had some push-back in reserve each time. They went into the fourth leading 44-37.
Elyria opened the fourth with a 9-2 run. A 3-pointer by Natalie Swallow at the 5:15-mark ignited a volley by the Pirates, who scored 10 of the game's next 12 points.
That surge got River within six -- at 55-49. That separation between the two GLC West combatants existed much of the rest of the way.
The final tally of 61 points for the Panthers marked the most Rocky River had allowed in a single game since Dec. 27 (64 vs. Laurel). The loss snapped a seven-game win streak, the Pirates' longest since a seven-gamer last season (Dec. 8, 2021-Jan. 5, 2022)
Shooting percentages for the game were a near-even exchange, but Elyria got to the free-throw line 26 times to River's 12. Panthers' leading scorer Carter McCray led the drive at the stripe. McCray was 13-of-18 at the line en route to scoring 31 points the home five.
Rocky River was a plus-7 on the boards (37-30 edge in rebounds) but a minus-6 in turnover margin (21 to 16).
Individually Patti outdueled McCray to net 33 points in the game. The junior talent went 13-of-19 from the floor in breaking the program's single-game scoring record, a 32-year-old mark held by Carrie Millward (31 points in a game in 1991). Patti also had a career-high 15 rebounds in the game.
Swallow finished with 11 points and five rebounds. Kylie Crane and Mackenzie Russell each had 4-and-4 evenings.
McCray -- who also had 12 rebounds, four assists, and three steals -- had her 31 points backed up by two other double-figure scoring performances for the Panthers. Isabelle Niederst logged 13P and 6A; Camara Ogletree had 11P and 8S.
With their victory, the Panthers move on to a Saturday GLC title game against East No. 2-seed Lakewood. Rocky River (15-5) will play a Saturday consolation game (opponent, site, time TBA).
by Skip Snow
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