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The Elyria Catholic Panthers traveled to Bay Village to play Girls Varsity Basketball on Saturday afternoon. Bay Rockets Sophomore Lucy Bisson was aggressive early on and attacked the Panther defense and dribbled hard towards the rim on several possessions.
She is pretty tall at 6-0 and knows how to use her size. She had success early, and Elyria fouled her several of those possessions and Bisson turned them into points on most of them. She had 8 points in the first quarter. She had very little offensive support from many of the other Rocket Ladies. Another Sophomore Riley LaVogue chipped in two in the quarter.
Meanwhile the Elyria Catholic Lady Panthers had four players on the score sheet producing points. Sophomore Isabella Niederst started with a bucket and a foul shot, and later in the quarter Niederst had a beautiful steal and she streaked down the court for an awesome easy layup. She had five for the first.
Senior Guard Annika Bredel had two sweet jumpers from left of the foul line and swished them both. Bredel has had a wonderful High School career as she approaches 1000 total points. So congratulations to her on that wonderful accomplishment. Senior Guard for the Panthers Natalie Palese had a beautiful three pointer from the right side in the quarter also. The score at the end of the quarter was Elyria Catholic 14 to 10 for Bay
Although the Rockets were hanging in there, it would not last long. Early in the quarter Bay was still looking strong. Sophomore Guard Rory Marcis had two nice threes from the top of the circle.
The swarming unrelenting defense of the Panthers was the key reason for the Bay Village troubles. The Ladies of Elyria were excellent at cutting off passing lanes and tightly covering opposing players. This causes errant passes either out of bounds or steals by the Panthers that lead to easy buckets
In the second the Panthers had six players in the scoring column. Junior Post player Carter McCray is 6-1 and strong. She was really tough on the boards which lead to numerous put backs and easy points. She had six points in the quarter and a whopping sixteen for the game. Senior Guard Lexi Pluta had a beautiful three from the right wing, and the score at the half was 32-22 Elyria. That was as close as Bay would get.
In the third quarter Bay Freshman Forward Maddie Bigler had a nice layup in the quarter had fellow Freshman for the Rockets Grace Manololoff had four points in the quarter on a nice put back and a layup.
The Rockets only scored nine points in the third, while the Panthers poured in nineteen in the eight minutes. McCray had a beautiful blocked shot at 5:38 left in the quarter and #3 Sophomore Forward Katie Mold had a nice three from the right wing. The score at the end of the third was 50 to 31 as the Lady Panthers were coasting.
In the fourth quarter the Lady Rockets put up ten points. Bigler had two sweet layups, but once again this quarter belonged to the Panthers. Elyria put in 13 points, and the highlight was a relentless play by McCray where it took her three tries to put the ball in under the bucket. Her sheer will and determination were fun to watch for the Panther faithful. Annika Bredel finished with 13, Niederst had 15, and McCray had 16. The final score was 64 to 41 Panthers.
