As Rocky River Coach Jamey Pfahl's birthday approached, his players wanted to know what they could get him.
“I told them all I wanted was for them to win the game,” the first-year Pirate coach said.
So for his 47th birthday, the Pirates came up one point short of matching his age as they beat the visiting Bay Rockets 46-26 Saturday.
“We'd talked about it this week,” said Annika Mocho, who scored 16 points. “We had a really good practice, and then they had the B-day celebration at halftime. It was just a fun game.”
The Pirates improved their record to 3-1 overall and 2-1 in the Great Lakes Conference thanks to two runs, one at the beginning of the contest and the other in the third quarter. Bay dropped to 2-4 and 0-1.
“We actually played them close,” Bay Coach Lauren Heldt said. “Except for those two runs, it was a six-point game.”
The Pirates opened the contest by jumping out to an 8-0 lead before an inside basket by Grace Manoloff broke the streak.
The second streak proved to be the difference. The Rockets scored just three points in the third quarter and early into the final quarter, a long-range basket by Lucy Bisson to cut the deficit to 26-20.
However, the Pirates, led by Mocho, scored 26 unanswered points to open a 42-20 advantage with 4:06 left in the contest.
“We've had some slow starts in our games,” Pfahl said. “We've been trying to challenge them to start fast.”
Mocho had 6 points in the opening run and 8 points in the second-half streak.
“She's great,” Pfahl said.”She's got a great basketball IQ, great court sense. I just love how relentlessly she plays.”
Besides Mocho, eight other Rocky River players scored. Emmy Convery added 7, Claudia Roche had 6, Ava Patti had 5, Maeve Kelly had 4, Kylie Crane had 3, Lenore Wright added 2 and Haddie Holton had 2. Natalie Swallow was held to 1, but was limited due to foul trouble.
Lucy Bisson finished with 13 points for Bay, followed by Manoloff's 6. Lucy Mastromatteo had 3 points, while Ruthie Bisson had had 2 points.
The Pirates play at home against North Olmsted tonight, and then travel to Westlake on Saturday. Bay, meanwhile, plays host to Elyria Catholic today, and then plays Fairview at home on Saturday.
Despite the loss, Heldt is optimistic about her team.
“We're starting three sophomores, a junior and a senior,” the first-year coach said. “The junior and senior are the only two that have varsity experience. We've got all these pieces that need to mesh together. We're starting to see improvement.”
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