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Cover photo by Kyle Foisy
What a game as two of the GLC’s best went at it today in Rocky River. The Elyria Catholic Panthers used a superb second half rally to capture the 53-52 road victory. Both teams played tremendous and were led by their stars as Isabelle Niederst scored 29 for the Panthers as Ava Patti poured in 24 for the Pirates as they went at it blow for blow.
Niederst had plenty of help as Camara Ogletree had 12 while Mya Rivera had 6. When it comes to Rivera, she had ice water in her veins as she nailed two huge three pointers during the climatic moments of the game, when the Panthers needed a big shot or two, Rivera delivered! Also scoring for the Panthers was Lexi Rodriguez with 4 and Nevaeh Sawyer with 2.
As mentioned, River was led by Patti with 24 while Elizabeth Lang had 10 and fellow freshman Olivia Dewey scored 8. Claudia Roche put in 6 while Lenore Wright and Russell had two each.
Both teams started out a bit cold, as after a Niederst inside drive to start things, no one scored for a few minutes. Making it worse, the Pirates went 0 for 5 from the foul line in that stretch as well. A Patti bucket eventually got River on the board, tied up at 2 early on. This sparked a mini run by the Pirates that saw another bucket by Patti and then Russell to make it 6-2.
After two Lang foul shots made it 8-2, the Panthers began to battle back with 5 straight from Niederst to cut it to 8-7. From there, the Pirates got hot again and finished the quarter on a 6-0 run to take a 14-7 lead after one.
The second quarter started with two more foul shots by Patti, before the freshmen Dewey found the freshmen Lang for another bucket. The freshmen combination gave the Pirates their biggest lead of the game at 18-7. Two more Lang foul shots pushed the River lead to 20-7 before another Niederst basket cooled the run. She would nail the foul shot to follow, and then a three on their next trip down the court, as Niederst accounted for the Panthers first 13 points of the game.
She couldn’t be stopped, as another Niedert shot and foul shot combo, cut it to 20-15 as she scored 7 straight points. The Panthers weren’t done as they ran an inbound play from the sidelines, that ended up with Ogletree drilling a three to cut it to 20-18, with 11 straight Panther points. An Ava Patti basket stopped the run. Patti and the Pirates would go on to lead at the break, 28-21 with Patti racking up 18 points by the break, while Niederst had 18 as well.
The Panthers got River into foul trouble in the third, but only made 2 of their first 6 foul shots. Still, even with that, they cut a 34-26 River lead, to 34-32 when Niederst drained a three, late into the third. Dewey went to the bank to answer that three with one of her own for the Pirates. Right after that however, Ava Patti picked up her fourth personal foul on a technical, and everything started to change just a bit as Niederst went to the line to take the techs. The teams went to the fourth 37-35 as River clung to a 2-point lead.
Down 41-37 early into the fourth, the Panthers needed a big shot and got one from Mya Rivera to close the gap to 41-40. A few moments later, a Niederst spin move tied it at 42 apiece. The next time down the court, the Panthers took their first lead since it was 2-0, on an Ogletree inside hoop to make it 44-42 Panthers. Up 1, it was time for a Rivera dagger, and she drained another one from the corner to hand the Panthers a 47-42 lead.
From there, a Roche long ball answered it out of the Pirate timeout to cut it to 47-45 Panthers. Elyria Catholic drained some foul shots and looked to have it put away as they built a 50-45 lead in the final moments. Ava Patti had other ideas as she hit a shot, stole the inbounds pass and hit another shot while getting fouled to cut it to 50-49 and head to the line to try and tie it. She nailed it, and just like that we were tied at 50.
Elyria Catholic put the ball in the hands of their star, and Niederst drove and got fouled and split fouls shots to make it 51-50 Panthers. The Panthers hung on for the 53-52 win.
It was a tremendous game with very little to anything to complain about. The only thing I would say about this one that could have been better, was the combined 17 foul shots that were missed. In a one-point game like this, those things do jump out. Although for River, after missing their first 5, they made their last 10 in a row.
I’ll say it, what a game!
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