by ROCKY RIVER, OH – The River Pirates captured their 7th straight victory with a dominant matinee victory at home over the visiting Cleveland Hts Tigers. The Pirates are now 7-2 and will look to stay red hot as they collide with Olentangy Berlin later this week. It has been an incredible 7 game stretch in which their margin of victory has averaged 34.7 points per game.
They were led in scoring today by the red hot three-point shooting of Nora Bruder who finished with 23 points and 15 from downtown. Bruder is now just 5 away from tying the school record. Fellow junior sensation Libby Lang piled up 13 points in the paint while Maria Petrulis scored 8 off the bench. Claudia Roche had 3 while Olivia Dewey and Angelina Swallow capped the scoring with 4 each.
After a scoreless first two minutes it was Libby Lang breaking the seal and getting the scoring going with a layup. This was the start of a 9-0 run to start the game as the Tigers didn’t see their first bucket until 3:22 remained on the first quarter clock. The final portion of the quarter was dominated by the Pirates as they went on to score the final 12 points of the quarter to lead 21 – 2 after one. Bruder drained three long balls in the quarter to lead all scorers with 14.
A scrappy first two minutes of the second quarter saw the score sit at 25-4 before a 6-0 run by the Tigers cut the score to 25-10. This was a crazy four minute stretch where the Pirates couldn’t buy a bucket and at the same time, the Tigers could not get a single defensive rebound and had to wait for a turnover or the ball to go out of bounds. Eventually, the Pirates popped out of the slumber and used some hot shooting to to take a 34-12 lead into the break as Maria Petrulis had 4 Pirate points in the second quarter.
Lang and Bruder started the half hot with 5 points in the first 60 seconds to extend the lead to 39-12. For Bruder, her points came on her fourth three pointer of the game. Evans stopped the mini run for the Tigers with a put back, but from there it was all Pirates as they finished the third quarter red hot, building their lead to 51-17 with 8 minutes to play, also starting the running clock in the process.
The Tigers actually outscored the Pirates 15-7 in the fourth quarter, but by that point the game was already long since decided as River captured the 58-32 win.
