The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Firelands falls to formidable River
Pirates take potential postseason preview
Firelands learned a valuable lesson during its Jan. 27 nonconference loss to Rocky River: Speed kills.
The Falcons and Pirates were locked in a back and forth affair in the final minutes of the game, but eventually the speed and athleticism of Rocky River outlasted a Firelands comeback, giving them a 63-56 win.
“We just didn’t do a very good job of keeping them in the half court,” Firelands head coach Dave Kudela said. “We were allowing them to run out way too much there. And usually that’s us. But tonight we played a team that was more athletic than what we’re used to seeing.”
The loss is the second on the season for the Falcons, who are unbeaten in the Lorain County League. But the Pirates are a team that Firelands could see again in the district tournament, as they did last season.
The Falcons knocked off Rocky River in the first round of the playoffs last year, 52-48. Both coaches are aware there’s a good chance they will see each other again this year in the postseason.
“We told them, this is an important game when it comes down to the voting,” Rocky River head coach Elaine Robinson said.
“We just had to come out here and play Rocky River girls basketball and that’s something we’ve been preaching since day one. We’ve had the mentality that we’re going to show up and do what we do, teams have to beat us.”
Firelands fell behind by 14 just minutes into the second half, after trailing by three points at the half, thanks to a seven-point run in about 20 seconds by the Pirates.
Taylor Spies knocked down a 3-pointer, then a steal on the inbounds pass leading to a Julia Potts layup. Then, seconds later, another Falcons turnover led to a Maria Potts bucket and a 41-27 lead.
“I feel like they outworked us early in both the first and second halves,”
Firelands forward Madison Sutton said. “That just let down us and our defense, and we just needed to work harder, every single time we had the ball.”
It didn’t take long for the visitors to answer that run with one of their own as the Falcons scored 10 straight to pull within four, before eventually taking the lead in the fourth.
Sutton was a major part of that comeback, scoring six of her 12 points in the quarter.
“It was two quality teams battling it out,” Kudela said. “Once we kind of figured out what they were going to do, we made a few adjustments and then you saw that little run, and then you saw their adjustment to what we were doing. It was a good game, give Rocky River credit, I thought they just out hustled us.”
Sutton was joined in double figures by Emily Stewart with 11 and Megan Sutton
with a game high 15.
But Rocky River shut the door in the final quarter, going 9 of 10 from the line down the stretch.
“The fact that we were able to keep our composure like we did down the stretch really just says a lot about our girls,” Robinson said. “We come into practice every single day and we work our tails off. I thought our relentlessness and aggressiveness paid off down the stretch.”
Sophomore Kelsey Murphy led Rocky River with 14, followed by Spies with 13, both Julia and Maria Potts with 11 and Sophia Murray with 10.
The Pirates (15-3) will continue their GLC campaign against Bay on Feb. 1.
The Falcons return to LC8 play on Feb. 1 with their much anticipated rematch against Wellington. Firelands won an overtime thriller over the Dukes on Dec. 21, 64-58.