ELYRIA, Ohio -- Rocky River's win streak came to a halt Saturday, as the Pirates lost a key Great Lakes Conference match-up against the Elyria Catholic Panthers. River's normally stingy defense was touched up for a season-high 65 points in a 65-53 loss.
The setback at EC snaps a nine-game win streak, the program's longest since 2010-11 (17 straight, Dec. 22-March 3). The streak was earned chiefly on a ball-hawking Buccaneer defense which had been holding foes to just 33.1 points per game on a 28% field-goal percentage until Saturday. And on Saturday, the host Panthers flipped those trends upside down.
Elyria Catholic tallied 18-plus points in three of the game's four periods. The 65 points the Panthers scored in all marked the most the Pirates have yielded in a single game in nearly two years (72 vs. EC, Feb. 6, 2019). EC went a robust 20-of-39 (51.3%) in shooting the basketball.
The game flow had the Pirates close early, but the Panthers outshot River, 50% to 20% in a second quarter that saw the home five build a double-digit lead. After trailing 36-25 at the half, Rocky River (9-1, 7-1 GLC) came out with a strong third quarter. The Pirates outscored the Panthers, 14-9, in that period, and would get to within two points (47-45) of their hosts by the early moments of the fourth.
From that point on, EC leveraged better handles on the basketball, solid rebounding, and lights-out shooting in sinking the Pirates. Elyria scored 18 of the game's final 26 points to tidy up the victory.
The Panthers were 6-of-9 from the field and 6-of-9 from the free-throw line in that fourth quarter. For the game, EC outshot River, 51% to 33%, from the floor, 50% to 25% from beyond the arc, and 76% to 53% at the line. A Pirate five which hadn't yielded more than four threes in a game this winter was undone by the Panthers going 9-of-18 from distance.
River did force 25 turnovers in the game but could only net 11 points off those miscues.
Emily Rapacz led Elyria with 23 points, seven rebounds, and four assists. Rocky River's leaders in the game were Kelsey Murphy (14 points, eight rebounds), Sophia Murray (11 points, four assists, five steals), Taylor Spies (eight points, four rebounds).
Head Coach Elaine Robinson noted her team's tenacity in the effort: "We didn’t get the win we wanted. but I am so proud of their fight. I’ll go to battle with our girls any day."
by Skip Snow
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