by Kee On Sports family, say hello to Saniyah Hall as this incredible freshman talent led the Laurel Gators to a Holiday Tournament Championship win 64-38 today at Rocky River against the Pirates. To think this young lady who scored 31 points today has another 3 and a half years to play High School ball, is pretty scary! What a talent! If you haven’t seen her play yet, you need to.
While Hall scored 31, the driving force for the Gators was often the exciting duo of Mari Bickley with 10 and Margaret Jones with 7 to go with the monster night from Hall. Cori Marsalis had 5, while Tristan Williams had 8.
All that being said, as good as Laurel looked, I cannot begin to say enough good things about the Pirates as well. No matter the amount of the deficit, this team just kept coming. They didn’t back down, they took charges when they could and they played as physically as possible. They were led by Natalie Swallow with 8 points and Annika Mocho with 13. Ava Patti cooled off just a bit with 6, while Emmy Convery had 6 as well. Both Maeve Kelly and Mackenzie Russell finished with 2 while Haddie Holton had a point.
The Gators raced out to an 11-0 run to start the game, thanks in part to a hot start from Hall with 8 of those points in that stretch. A Rocky River Annika Mocho foul shot halted it for a moment, before the Gators finished the quarter with a 9-7 run to close out the quarter 20-8. When Hall was covered it led to open shots buried by Tristan Williams and Cori Marsalis from deep, along with 6 big points from Margaret Jones inside.
The Pirates made a beautiful run in the second quarter to cut the lead to 28-21 at the halftime. This came after six straight points from the Gators to begin the quarter up 26-8. After a River timeout and re-adjustment by coach Pfahl. Anika Mocho scored 5 straight and the Pirates slowly crept back in the game. Mocho had 8 in the quarter, as they held Laurel to 8 as a team. Cutting the lead to 7 at halftime was a giant win for Rocky River considering their top scorer from yesterday, Ava Patti with 30 against North Ridgeville, was held to just 2 points in the entire first half, with both coming from the foul line.
The third quarter was all Gators however as they pulled away to lead 46-27 after the next 8-minute stretch. Hall and Bickley went off for 8 each as they looked unstoppable together. Mix in cold shooting from the Pirates that only saw two buckets from Natalie Swallow for their only field goals in the frame. The Gators started that quarter with an 11-0 run and never looked back.
The Hall show continued in the fourth as the Gators went on to win 64-38. It looked for a brief moment that the game would end 59-38 until a 5-point barrage in the last 3 seconds by Hall to close the show.
Thank you to coaches Jamey Pfahl, Hannah McCue and Jeff Hammond along with AD Mark Wagner for your incredible hospitality this week. It was a wonderful tournament, thank you!
Thank you everyone for your support of Kee On Sports in 2022. In order to keep the site free without any pay walls to read the content, we badly need sponsors in 2023. Please contact me at coachvin14@yahoo.com to learn how you can become an advertising partner in 2023.
Great Article…Thanks for covering!
Nicely written article! Thank you for covering this event.