by ROCKY RIVER, OH – It was Youth Night at River High on Wednesday and the Varsity Lady Pirates gave their youth plenty of memories to take home including autographs and plenty of points! The Pirates defeated the visiting North Olmsted Eagles by a score of 60-25 as they turned turnovers into points all game long.
The Pirates were led by the hot shooting Nora Bruder with 21 while Libby Lang dominated the paint to score 14 as Olivia Dewey chimed in with 11. Claudia Roche scored while Taylor Boras and Kylie Dewitt each had 3. Rounding out the Pirate attack was Angelina Swallow and Mai Petrulis with 2 each.
The Eagles were led by Katja Colombo with 8 while Giuliana Sharp had 5 and Peyton Johnson scored 4. Scoring 3 each was Amaya Capps and Ciana DiMatteo while Emilee Meyer finished with 2.
The game began with six straight points from Libby Lang as she attacked the paint time after time. The early River run was stopped as Katja Colombo drove the lane and connected on a spinning hook shot to score for the Eagles. From there it was another six straight from River as Lang continued to control the paint and hit putbacks. Just like that she had 10 points in the games first 3 minutes as the Pirates led 12-2.
From there, Nora Bruder, the newly crowned all time three-point leader in school history decided to drain another, extending the lead to 15-2. The Pirates spent the rest of the quarter making a defensive statement as they didn’t allow the Eagles to hit another bucket, and quite frankly, didn’t allow many shots either. The Pirates defense held the Eagles to quite a few possessions under 5 seconds before a turnover would occur. The Pirates held a 23-2 lead after one quarter of action.
The second quarter began in the same fashion with an Eagle turnover leading to Pirate points as Dewey drained a three-ball following a turnover. Bruder followed with 8 straight, including back-to-back three balls from Bruder, extending the lead to 34-2. They built the lead up to 36-2 before a Peyton Johnson steal and score stopped the run at 36-4, as River managed to score 30 straight points before that. The Pirates took a 45-9 lead into the break.
A Dewey bucket got the Pirates moving quickly to start the second half. A few moments later, a Bruder bucket would assure the game a running clock the rest of the way at 49-9. The River lead was built to 51-9 went Coach Pfahl made some wholesale changes to ensure plenty of action for his roster. This latest River run was stopped by a Capps foul shot for the Eagles. The quarter wrapped up with the Pirates on top 51-10.
The Eagles outscored the Pirates 15-9 in the fourth with big shots from Capps, Sharp, Colombo and Dimatteo. The Pirates held on for the convincing 60-25 victory.
