Girls basketball: Elyria Catholic opens NCC title defense with win over Holy Name

ELYRIA — If there's one thing Eric Rothgery can count on with his Elyria Catholic girls, it's defense. While the Panthers struggled shooting the basketball Saturday afternoon, it was the defense that proved the difference in a 41-31 victory over Holy Name to open EC's defense of the North Coast Conference championship. The Panthers defense forced the Green Wave to commit 18 turnovers. "We needed to (Saturday)," said Rothgery, somewhat a defensive guru during his 23 years as head coach. "Our shooting percentage had to be — whew — really bad, especially that first half. We couldn't buy a bucket, and it didn't seem like a lot of them were close. A lot of big misses that first half." For the game, EC (3-2, 1-0 NCC) finished at 29 percent, but it was only 7-of-28 (25 percent) the first half. Even the foul shooting was off. The Panthers finished 8-of-19 at the line but were just 2-of-11 (18 percent) through three quarters. "That's rough," Rothgery said. "And that's including the four out of five in the fourth or something like that. We're just not there yet. We put in a lot of time in practice at shooting. We probably need to spend more time on our zone offense, and we'll do that this week." Thankfully for the Panthers, the defense did its job, turning the Wave over 11 times in the first half as EC took a slim 16-15 lead at the break. Holy Name (1-3, 0-1) didn't shoot the ball much better, hitting just 30 percent from the floor and 29 percent at the foul line. "We had a nice little run there toward the end of the (second) quarter to at least be up going into halftime," Rothgery said. "Girls came out and tacked on a couple threes in a row to get us going in the third quarter and at least give us a little bit of space." Junior Sophia Niederst and senior Gabby Rodriguez hit back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead to 23-15. EC outscored Holy Name 13-7 in the quarter and 25-16 for the half to salt away the win. "Shoot better," Rothgery answered when asked what the halftime message to his team was. "I'm not sure what I had to say other than we had to make a few shots." Niederst, much like her older sister Isabelle, now playing at Tiffin University, plays fundamentally sound on both ends of the floor. She led the Panthers with 13 points and hit four of her last six free throws. She also had a handful of steals and came up with eight rebounds. "I always try to anticipate on defense because low scoring games like that, you always try to get out in transition and getting an easy two points," Niederst said. "I was just ready in the passing lanes and trying to jump the ball to try to get an easy two points." "I have two really good on-ball defenders at guard in Gabby and Soph," Rothgery said. "They get their hands on a lot of balls. We got a couple easy baskets out of that, too." Rodriguez hit a pair of 3-pointers and finished with 11 points. She also had six rebounds. Junior Claire Petrus led the rebounding with 10 and added eight points, six coming in the second half. Sophomore Ari Dimacchia chipped in five points and three rebounds. Against Holy Name's zone, Niederst was able to penetrate the defense off the dribble, giving her or her post players — Petrus and Dimacchia — chances to finish inside. It also enabled her to get to the foul line. "I always attack the basket, trying to score," she said. "Whenever I feel the help comes, I know someone's always open. I always try to find the open person." "She's worked really hard on attacking the basket," said Rothgery, with a smile. "There's a lot of similarities (to her sister). It'd be nice if their parents had a few more kids. I think we're done on the girls side." Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com.Elyria Catholic 41, Holy Name 31 ELYRIA CATHOLIC (41): Gabby Rodriguez 4-1-11, Claire Petrus 3-2-8, Sophia Niederst 4-4-13, Ari Dimacchia 2-1-5, Juliana Cerny 0-0-0, Riley Treadway 1-0-2, Trinity Metzinger 1-0-2, Lyla Smith 0-0-0, Alena Bray 0-0-0. Totals 15-8-41. HOLY NAME (31): Maura Mihalik 0-0-0, Layla Rudolph 2-0-4, Nalani Simon 2-0-4, Jordan Carmona 3-2-9, Claire Coljohn 5-0-11, Emmalee Majoros 1-0-3, Brianne Barker 0-0-0, Ava Bunnell 0-0-0, Skyler Treer 0-0-0, Noemi Cartegena 0-0-0. Totals 13-2-31. Holy Name 8 7 7 9 — 31 Elyria Cath. 4 12 13 12 — 41 Three-point goals: Holy Name 3-18 (Cremona, Coljohn, Majoros), Elyria Catholic 3-19 (Rodriguez 2, Niederst). Field goals: Holy Name 13-43 (30 percent), Elyria Catholic 15-51 (29 percent). Free throws: Holy Name 2-7 (29 percent), Elyria Catholic 8-19 (42 percent). Rebounds: Holy Name 40 (Coljohn 9), Elyria Catholic 38 (Petrus 10). Turnovers: Holy Name 18, Elyria Catholic 12. Fouls: Holy Name 17, Elyria Catholic 10. Junior varsity: Holy Name, 40-38.