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Rocky River used the senior leadership of Ava Patti and Mackenzie Russell along with the freshman spark of Nora Bruder, Oliva Dewey and Liz Lang to capture a thrilling 45-42 playoff victory tonight at North Ridgeville. Ava Patti scored 19, with 17 of those points coming in the second half while playing with three fouls. Patti took over in the third and fourth quarters and in many ways, willed her team to victory tonight.
Patti talked about her teams fourth quarter performance, “It’s just that fire within me, I knew I had to bring it in the second half.” I then asked her about her teammate Mackenze Russell, “I love playing with Mackenzie Russell, and all of my teammates. Russell, her defense was incredible tonight. I trust her, and love playing next to her. “
Russell only scored 6 points but that didn’t matter, they were a huge 6 points coming at the perfect times, both times she hit from deep. She also played tremendous defense. Dewey hit a major three point shot in the fourth, and then hit the two foul shots that ended up sealing the game and forcing the Rangers to try a last second three pointer. Fellow freshman’s Nora Bruder and Liz Lang scored 11 combined points in the first half to keep River ahead while Patti and Russell both had to sit with three fouls each.
For Grace Kingery of North Ridgeville, it was the best and worst all in one night for the amazing senior. She broke the Lorain County all time scoring record tonight, as she finished her Lorain County High School career with an outstanding 1935 career points, with 28 coming in the first three quarters of this one.
Brooke Lime and Maddie Eldridge both saw their High School careers come to an end as well tonight. The two best friends will now go on to college together at Mount Union. Lime had a great drive tonight, finishing with 8 points. Maddie, played incredible defense against Patti in the first half until getting a bit banged up right before the half.
Rocky River head coach Jamey Pfahl had this to say about his teams ability to hold the Rangers to just 5 fourth quarter points in a thrilling comeback, “I was just so proud of them, they just stuck with each other. We have a team theme of together, and they stuck together. Last year when we lost to Magnificat, we decided to put together a tough schedule, so we’d be prepared to get to that moment again. North Ridgeville is a great team with a great program and we were happy to play them. “
North Ridgeville head coach Amy Esser made a point of explaining just how hard Kingery has worked to achieve the record, “She is the first one in the gym, the last one out, and doesn’t care about records, she cares about winning games with her teammates. It’s an accomplishment that needs to be recognized, she can do it all and works so hard. She is All Ohio material. She doesn’t care about how many points she had tonight, she just cares that we lost this game. “
(Authors Note: Coach Esser is 100% on the money with that comment. I’ve seen it for four years.)
Coach Esser went on to talk about her teams heart shown tonight in that third quarter, “That is the makeup of our team, we worked hard. Rocky River hit shots at the end, we couldn’t. “
The first quarter was a back and forth affair. Maddie Eldridge made life tough on Ava Patti with some strong defense but sharp passing by Patti helped generate points for the Pirates. By the end of 1, it was 13-11 Pirates. At one point, the Ranger led, before 5 straight points from Nora Bruder for the Pirates.
Up by two to start the second quarter, the Pirates came out gunning as a Russell three, extended their lead to 16-11. From there, a Dewey drive extended the lead to 18-11. In this time frame however, Ava Patti picked up a crucial third foul and had to sit the remainder of the second quarter with 6:27 still to play.
Down 18-11, Kingery broke the record on a soft jump shot, and then nailed a three a few moments later to close the gap to 18-17 with six straight points, as she mixed in a foul shot between those two made buckets. Liz Lang got a wide open up layup in the closing seconds of the period, to land the Pirates a 20-17 halftime lead.
The Rangers came out of the break on fire, with 9 straight points to grab a 26-20 lead with 4:49 to go. Lime was attacking the hoop and had 5 during that stretch. From there, the rest of the quarter was the kind of duel basketball fans love, as Kingery and Patti started exchanging big shots. Grace scored 13 in the third, while Patti sunk 11. The two, put on a clinic for the packed house who sat in awe of the two superstars. Amazingly however, it was a fantastic Eland bucket at the buzzer to extend the Rangers lead to 37-31 after 6 quarters.
Ava Patti wasn’t ready for her senior season and Rocky River career to end yet, she took full control of the fourth by scoring all 6 early points in a 6-2 run that cut the Ranger lead to 39-37. It was then the feisty freshman Dewey nailed a monster three pointer to give the Pirates a 40-39 lead. Moments later, an Eland trailer made it 41-40 Rangers, as both buckets by Eland tonight were gigantic.
Down by 1 with 2:30 to play, it was Russell’s turn to step up, and the senior did just that by drilling a three pointer to give the Pirates a 43-41 lead. The game remained that way until the Rangers had a chance to tie it with 17.9 seconds to go but couldn’t do it. Lime split foul shots, to make it 43-42, before Dewey hit two foul shots to seal it at 45-42.
