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ROCKY RIVER, OHIO – Magnificat Senior Katie Maryo, on senior night, had a game for the ages with 19 first half points to spark the Blue Streaks to a 65-36 victory over their across the street rival, Rocky River tonight. I spoke with Blue Streak head coach Danny Gallagher who had this to say about the hot start tonight for his team, “It being senior night, and we wanted to play great for them, in honor of them, and we came out ready to rock. It was a night to honor the seniors, and they did a great job being ready to go”.
Also red-hot tonight for the Blue Steaks was Sophia Wilson with 18, while Julia Hall had 12 and Gemma Wichman scored 7. Rounding out the scoring for the Blue Steaks was Brynn Roggenburk with 5 while Sophia LaPorte and Madelin Kowalski had 2 each.
The Pirates were led by the sensational Ava Patti with 20 while Elizabeth Lang had 8. Oliva Dewey had 2 while Mackenzie Russell and Claudia Roche each finished with three for Rocky River.
The game began with a red-hot Blue Streak shooting team that made it 8-0 in the first 90 seconds thanks to three pointers by Maryo and Roggenburk. A Wilson three extended it to 11-0 and then more hot shooting from beyond the ark from Maryo brought it all the way out to 16-0 at one point before a Patti layup stopped it at 16-2. From there Maryo got red hot again, finishing the quarter with 14 points as the Blue Streaks jumped out to a 27-8 lead into the second.
A 5-0 Patti run by River, cut the Blue Streak lead to 27-13. Russell drilled a three ball right after that to make it 27-16 just 90 seconds in the quarter. Wilson and Maryo answered with three straight three balls of their own, to bring the lead back out to 20, with the Blue Streaks up 36-16 minutes into the second. A Wilson shot from the elbow extended it to 38-26 and there was no looking back from there for Magnificat. The Blue Streaks took a 40-19 lead into the break.
Blue Streak head coach Danny Gallagher talked about the timeout he called during the Rocky River run and what they did to adjust from there, “we needed to get back to our values, and our process as to how we play. Everything we do, we relate back to that so we know that if we are turning the ball over, there is a reason why and that is because we’re not doing what we are supposed to be doing in relations to our values and process. We talk about simplifying the game, making the right passes to the right people and valuing it and sharing it.”
Rocky River committed five straight turnovers to start the second half while Julia Hall helped the Blue Streaks extend the lead to 46-19 in that stretch. A few minutes later, some Hall foul shots gave the Blue Streaks their largest lead of the game at 53-23 with a little over 90 seconds to go in the quarter.
The Blue Streaks took a 53-25 lead into fourth when Ava Patti hit back-to-back threes to attempt to spark a Pirate coming back for Rocky River. It was not enough however as the Blue Streaks went on from there to capture the 65-36 win.
