by Story by Reese Wamer Sport Management Major | Baldwin Wallace ‘23
The Rocky River Pirates hosted the Avon Eagles Thursday night in postseason action. The crowd was packed, and the atmosphere was right where it needed to be for a matchup of this caliber. In the first, it was struggle for both teams to score early. Both teams were playing lockdown defense and gave the opposing offense some fits.
Both sides settled down and scoring ensued with a basket by the Pirates forward, Ava Patti. The Pirates seemed to have the first quarter maintained until Eagles guard Brooke Laub hit a buzzer-beating three to end the quarter. Pirates led 8-7. In the 2nd, the Pirates defense shut down the eagles throughout the first half of the quarter, holding them to only 2 points with three minutes to go. Ava Patti and Annika Mocho were dominant inside the paint and from beyond the arch. The Pirates led at the half by a score of 21-14.
In the third, both teams started to score at a high rate as the Pirates took a 16-point lead, but the Eagles fought back to get it within 12. Brooke Laub and Molly Drenik were both essential in keeping this game close as they were getting buckets for the Eagles when they needed them the most.
In The 4th, the Eagles battled it down to a 5-point deficit. Their press seemed to be working, causing turnovers which led to easy points on the other end. However, Ava Patti and the Pirates were too much for the Eagles as they went on to seal the win.
The Pirates took this one by a final score of 48-40. Ava Patti finished with 20 and Annika Mocho finished with 16 for the Pirates. Brooke Laub had 15 for the Eagles
