Basketball Game Preview: Rocky River Pirates vs. Normandy Invaders

Rocky River is 10-0 against Normandy since January of 2019 and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Saturday. The Rocky River Pirates will be playing at home against the Normandy Invaders at 12:30 p.m. Rocky River is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 50.9 points per game this season.

Last Wednesday, Rocky River was able to grind out a solid victory over Lakewood, taking the game 45-33. Given the Pirates' advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 137th, while the Rangers are ranked 434th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Rocky River's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Elizabeth Lang led the charge by putting up 12 points in addition to eight boards and four steals. With that strong performance, Lang is now averaging an impressive 2.1 steals per game. The team also got some help courtesy of Claudia Roche, who posted 11 points and six rebounds.

Meanwhile, Normandy had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 9.5 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Wednesday. They came out on top against the Eagles by a score of 46-37.

The win made it two in a row for Rocky River and bumps their season record up to 10-3. As for Normandy, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a nice bump to their 6-5 record this season.

Rocky River strolled past Normandy when the teams last played back in December of 2024 by a score of 66-48. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Normandy's Ziley Minich, who almost dropped a double-double on 26 points and nine steals. Now that she's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Rocky River still be able to contain Minich? There's only one way to find out.