Preview: Rocky River Pirates vs. Padua Franciscan Bruins
After three games on the road, Rocky River is heading back home. They will finish 2023 at home by hosting the Padua Franciscan Bruins at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.
Last Wednesday, Rocky River lost to Strongsville on the road by a decisive 64-50 margin. While losing is never fun, Rocky River can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 236th, while Strongsville is ranked 18th).
Despite the defeat, Rocky River got a solid performance out of Ava Patti, who dropped a double-double on 25 points and 12 rebounds. Patti scored a full 50% of Rocky River's points, the fourth time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Olivia Dewey, who scored nine points.
Rocky River struggled to work together and finished the game with only three assists. That's the fewest assists they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Padua Franciscan's recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Wednesday after their fifth straight loss. They were just a bucket shy of victory and fell 50-49 to Holy Name.
Rocky River's defeat dropped their record down to 4-3. As for Padua Franciscan, they bumped their record down to 1-7 with that loss, which was their seventh straight on the road dating back to last season.
