Panthers dominate Bay, capture GLC title

The Elyria Catholic girls basketball team clinched their fourth straight conference title on Feb. 10, topping Bay at home, 48-29.

“For our seniors, they’ve won it every year they’ve been here,” said Elyria Catholic coach Eric Rothgery. “This is the third in the Great Lakes Conference and we had the West Shore their freshman year. This is obviously one of the first goals you put on the board at the beginning of the year and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”

Early in the season, the Panthers lost to conference foe, Normandy, 4039, but since then they have won eight straight in the GLC.

“We lost a game early in the conference to Normandy and we had to dig ourselves out of a hole,” Rothgery said. “We knew Bay was going to come in here today and give us everything we could handle

and they did, but I thought our girls responded very well today.”

In the first quarter, Elyria Catholic outscored Bay, 13-9, as the Rockets went 3-of-8 from the field. Both teams in the second quarter went cold, as they each scored under double digits.

Both teams’ offenses ramped up in the third quarter, but Elyria Catholic managed to outscore Bay, 14-12. Sophomore guard Ally Winnen dropped 11 points for the Panthers.

“I thought we played extremely hard on defense,” said Bay coach Brian Hill said. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t change about our defensive effort and I think the biggest thing was we didn’t get the shots that we took and at the end of the day that how you lose games.

“When you’re going up against three 6-footers and we have nobody near 6 foot, and to be giving that kind of defensive effort is phenomenal.”

The Panthers went 13of-27 from the field while knocking down four 3-pointers.

“It’s always tough against Bay because they run about 17 different defenses and it takes a minute to figure out what they’re in,” said Rothgery. “I thought the girls showed some patience moving the ball and they got it in a lot of people’s hands and they got a lot of people on the scoreboard.”

For Bay, their next two opponents are Elyria and Normandy at home before the first round of the playoffs open up for them, but they’re already gearing up.

“We’re not going to face a team that looks like this in the playoffs at all,” said Hill. “Just size-wise, but we might face someone with the same skills. But their size makes a huge difference. I mean when you’re going against three 6x-footers, it’s really hard to play against, but our girls’ effort just shows.”