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It was the second Friday Night Showcase of the season between the Rocky River Pirates and the hosting Bay Rockets, and this one ended in the same result as the first, a 67-42 Pirate victory. The Pirates were led by Ava Patti with 18 and Mackenzie Russell with 8.
The Pirates spread the ball out nicely as 10 different girls saw the scoring column. Elizabeth Lang scored 8 while Lenore Wright and Kylie Crane each had 5. Rori Vesy and Claudia Roche each scored 4 while Nora Bruder and Maria Pfahl each drained one from downtown to finish with 3.
The Bay Rockets were led by the ever-steady Lucy Bisson who marked 21 while Quinn O’Leary had 10 and Norah Trefz scored 4. It was Grace Manoloff and Katie Mold with 3 each while Anna Weingart finished the Rocket scoring with 2.
The first six points of the night came the via the foul line, as Dewey and Patti combined for four wh ile Trefz had two for the Rockets to land Rocky River a 4-2 lead early. Lucy Bisson broke that up however by nailing a three ball, to hand the Rockets their first lead of the game at 5-4 with 6 minutes to go in the first. A Roche 3 for the Pirates would soon answer, and we were off to the races from there. By the end of the first quarter, Rocky River led 16-7. The Pirates went 7 of 8 from the foul line during that stretch as well.
The Pirates picked up the second quarter where they left off the first quarter with an instant bucket from Ava Patti only seconds into the second quarter. A Quinn O’Leary bucket on the next possession finally stopped the River run. An O’Leary three ball moments later, and suddenly the Rockets only trailed 18-12.
A few possessions later, a Lucy Bisson basket made it 18-14, and we had a game! The Pirates needed a bucket to stop the Rocket surge and got one from Lang, but the stop was only temporary as Bisson buried a three seconds later, to cut it to 20-17 River, with 5:10 to play in the opening half. It was a 10-4 run by the Rockets to begin the second quarter.
About a minute later, it was Bisson again, just like that, the Rockets only trailed 20-19 as Bisson was on fire! After an exchange of buckets made it 22-21, a huge three from Russell in the corner for the Pirates, sparked River to finish the second quarter strong, up 30-23.
If you like points, you would have loved the third quarter in this one as both teams went off to combine for 30 total points in a wild 3rd quarter of scoring. It began with a 9-3 run by River, that ran their lead back out to double digits at 39-26, they were just getting started! From there, between threes from Vesy, Wright and Bruder, along with inside moves by Lang and Patti, the Pirates just couldn’t be stopped. By the time the third quarter came to a close, the frantic pace of scoring led to a 50-33 Rocky River lead as 6 different Pirates scored in the frame.
A Mackenzie Russell inspired 8-2 River run to being the fourth quarter, put the Rockets away for good as Rocky River went on to win 67-42.
