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The vaunted Rocky River Pirate press vaulted them to an impressive 70-36 over the Firelands Falcons today at home to capture the Holiday Tournament Classic Championship. Eight different Pirates scored in a total team effort from top to bottom in the win.
They were led by Annika Mocho who finished with a game high 19 points, including 9 of those points from long distance. Ava Patti and Sophia Murray had 10 each while Natalie Swallow finished with 8. Haddie Holton buried two three balls late to finish with 6 points while Sophia Sindelar and Kylie Crane had 4 each.
Abbey Schmitz finished with a Firelands high of 17, bringing her two-game tournament total to 47. She would have had even more but got a bit dinged up and had to exit the game early. Schmitz buried two shots from beyond the arc and was 5 of 6 from the charity stripe.
The Pirates used a strong press to jump out to a quick 9-0 lead. They got a foul shot from Murphy and then exploded for 8 straight by using that press to build the lead. The Falcons came firing right back to make it 9-8 with a nice run of their own until River finished the first quarter scoring and took a 14-8 lead after one.
The Pirates ended all doubt quickly in the second quarter with a wild 13-0 run to extend their lead to 27-8 and take full control of the game. They continued to pile on the Falcons as 7 different Pirates would score in the quarter and they outscored the Falcons 25-6 to take a 39-14 lead into half. The only Falcon to score in the quarter was Abbey Schmitz with all 6 of their points.
Firelands came out in the third quarter playing inspired basketball and actually cut the 25-point lead down to 17 at 47-30 with less than a minute to play in the quarter. The Pirates would answer with 5 straight to close it out including a three ball from Mocho.
Up 52-30 to start the fourth quarter the Pirates wasted no time putting things away for good with an 8-0 run. The Pirates would continue to cruise from there with the 70-36 win.
