Rocky River vs. Elyria Catholic boys basketball: Panthers lead wire-to-wire for home GLC win

Getting off to a hot start isn’t new for Elyria Catholic.

After scoring the first 11 points but falling to Bay earlier this week, the Panthers weren’t going to let their early lead slip away again. EC scored the first 15 points of the game and kept the lead for the entire game in a 66-53 victory over Rocky River on Jan. 12.

Elyria Catholic (4-5) led, 17-2, after one quarter, but Rocky River (6-4) crept back into it during the second. The Pirates cut the deficit to three at one point and hung around during the middle of the game, but EC wouldn’t allow a repeat of the other night to happen.

“It was great. We’ve got a resilient bunch of kids,” Elyria Catholic coach Jeff Huber said. “A team like River, we knew they were going to make a run. One of the things I was proud of was in the second and third quarter when they were chipping away, a couple of our kids were talking about this was just what happened on Tuesday and what we had to do differently.”

Through their nine games so far, there have been plenty of ups and downs for the young Panthers. They graduated a lot of talent from last year’s team, and this team only has two seniors on it, including five underclassmen in the starting lineup.

This group is learning on the fly and getting valuable reps. That includes figuring out how to get off to a strong start and sustain it. EC didn’t let a veteran Rocky River team get back into the game. To do something like that shows a little something about this inexperienced squad.

“It felt amazing (to keep the lead). That Bay game was really rough for us,” Jacob Radcliffe said. “This Rocky River game was such a good bounceback. We played outstanding, and I’m just really proud of our guys.”

In Radcliffe’s fifth varsity game, he delivered with a game-high 19 points. He averaged 20.5 points per game in his first four of the year. The sophomore had help as Zavior Castillo scored 14 and AJ Defazio had 12. This three-headed monster was tough to guard for the Pirates.

Despite starting the game with a 15-0 deficit, Rocky River didn’t stop fighting. The Pirates started the second quarter firing on all cylinders with an 11-0 run. However, every time River got close, EC had an answer. It was a three-point game at one point in the second, but the Panthers stretched their lead back up to eight by halftime.

“We had a terrible start, and we’ve had that for a couple games now,” Rocky River coach Mike Murray said. “We were able to fight back, we made some adjustments. We were able to get back into the game, but it takes so much energy to do that.”

Elyria Catholic started the second half in a zone defense, limiting Rocky River’s drives to the basket. The Pirates couldn’t knock down their outside shots, and that helped EC keep them at bay. From there, the Panthers controlled the rest of the game and didn’t allow River to rally.

THE SCORE

Elyria Catholic 66, Rocky River 53