by It was all Panthers today at the Elyria Catholic Coliseum. Elyria Catholic entered this game 9-2 coming off a close loss to Perkins, while Fairview entered 4-7.
From the start you could tell it would be a long night for the Warriors. Elyria Catholic’s Carter McCray, who is committed to play at Northern Kentucky, got the Panthers out to a hot start and they never looked back. The Panthers started the game scoring 24 straight before Fairview finally got on the board with a Leila Discenza three pointer. EC held a 26-3 lead at the end of the first quarter, with Carter McCray having 15 of those points.
McCray was straight up unstoppable down low, as Fairview could do nothing to slow her down. In the second quarter it was more of the same and Elyria Catholic at one point led 36-3, before Fairview finally got some shots to fall for them. Gabby Davenport provided the spark in offense for the Warriors with a couple of big shots before the half. At the half Elyria Catholic led 42-11 and Carter McCray had 19 points to go along with 14 rebounds. Fairview shot just 4 for 22 in the first half.
To start the third McCray went right back to work, scoring 8 straight for the Panthers and grabbing 4 more rebounds. EC had a 50-11 lead with around 4 minutes left in the third quarter and Panthers coach Eric Rothgery decided to pull his starters for the night. After 3 quarters the Panthers held a 52-11 lead over the Warriors.
In the 4th quarter many players for EC got the chance to gain experience and one player who really took advantage of that was junior Meagan Pena, who scored 12 points for the Panthers. Fairview started shooting the ball much better in the 4th, knocking down 4 three pointers. 3 of those threes came from Gabby Davenport, who finished with 15 points. At one point Fairview had cut the lead under 30, but EC quickly got the lead back up to 35 and ended up winning by a final of 62-27.
Carter McCray finished with 27 points and 18 rebounds for the Panthers.
After the game when asked what stands out about this Panthers team coach Rothgery said “This team has a lot of toughness to it, if I had to single one thing out it’s a lot of toughness, they don’t want to ever accept losing, they play every game right to the last possession, it’s just a real tough group”.
Can the Junior Varsity get a little love? They also played a good game against Fairview.