Girls basketball: Elyria Catholic hits on all cylinders in season-opening rout of Revere

ELYRIA — The standard of Elyria Catholic girls basketball has the Panthers setting their sights high every year, and after a particularly heartbreaking postseason exit last season, the team is more than ready to begin its long trek toward the playoffs. The journey started Saturday in the season opener against Revere — an opportunity for the Panthers to put to the test all their offseason work and see how they might incorporate what they expect to be a pretty deep bench. In what looked more like a midseason performance than an opener, Elyria Catholic dominated Revere — a team that finished with 15 wins last season — on both sides of the floor in a 70-27 rout. "I think we have a chance to be a pretty good team," Elyria Catholic coach Eric Rothgery said. All offseason the Panthers had been focused on improving their shooting, and even this week in practice Rothgery told his team he was going to start shouting "bad shot" every time one of his players forced an attempt rather than wait for an open look. But Elyria Catholic played about as balanced as possible with four players scoring in double digits and nine players scoring at least two points. Even better? Rothgery said after the game he didn't have to call out "bad shot" once. Camara Ogletree had a game-high 15 points while Carter McCray, Isabelle Niederst and Elaiah Fisher each had 11 points for the Panthers. "Obviously we've got a big 6-1 center (McCray) and people are going to double down on her," Niederst said. "Having other people outside to be able to shoot, that's a great opportunity for other people to get points and just keep it balanced, so then not only are teams trying to lock down on one player, but they have more people to focus on. It just makes us more of a threat as a team altogether." McCray, a Northern Kentucky commit, has been playing long enough to know no matter the opponent, defenses are going to key on her, and while she said it still is frustrating when it gets crowded down low, she's confident she can kick it out to any of her teammates who pose just as much of a threat. "Obviously we have a deep bench and we feel confident we can bring in girls off the bench and still be doing good," she said. "Everyone brings something to the team and today was really good — we just played together well (and) people stepped up that are younger. It was good to see." The Panthers played just as well on defense with Niederst coming up with three steals and Elyria Catholic forcing Revere into 16 turnovers. Revere, playing its season opener as well, was held to single-digit scoring in every quarter but the first and was held scoreless through nearly the entire second quarter while Elyria Catholic went on a 24-0 run until a Mallory Tompkins free throw ended the drought. Rothgery truly believes the final score is more a testament to how good his team is and the potential it can reach rather than an indication of Revere's talent, and is hoping for a repeat performance when the Panthers take on Midview on Wednesday in the annual DiFranco Memorial Classic. "(Revere) had kids that were playing hard all the way to the end, they had a nice point guard, they had a couple kids with some size and some length, so I felt like it wasn't that we were that much better, but I felt like we played a lot better," he said. "There's no rest here. Midview obviously is loaded, and it's fun to play against a team like that. … I have a lot of respect for them and what they're doing out there at Midview and we should be ready." Contact Marissa McNees at ctsports@chroniclet.com and follow her on Twitter @MarissaNM. Elyria Catholic 70, Revere 27 REVERE: Natasha Pokrajac 1-0-2, Vanessa Loudin 0-0-0, Mallory Tompkins 1-1-3, Josie Schiesswohl 2-0-4, Hannah Freeman 0-0-0, Hailey Janke 0-0-0, Delaney Lowry 0-0-0, Madison Gostnell 0-0-0, Paige Kelley 0-0-0, Taylor Catlett 0-0-0, Ana Zlojutro 0-2-2, Sophia Wojciak 3-2-9, Ava Schiesswohl 2-1-5, Lauren Tompkins 1-0-2. Totals 10-6-27. ELYRIA CATHOLIC (1-0): Nevaeh Sawyer 1-2-8, Mya Rivera 1-2-5, Lauren Riddell 1-0-2, Carter McCray 4-3-11, Gabby Rodriguez 2-0-5, Amaya Smith 0-0-0, Meagan Pena 1-1-2, Lexi Rodgriguez 0-0-0, Isabelle Niederst 5-0-11, Elaiah Fisher 5-1-11, Camara Ogletree 6-1-15. Totals 28-7-70. Revere&emsp; &emsp;10&emsp;&emsp; 3&emsp; &emsp;5&emsp; &emsp;9&emsp;&emsp;—&emsp;&emsp;27Elyria Catholic&emsp;&emsp;21&emsp;&emsp;27&emsp;&emsp;12&emsp;&emsp;10&emsp;&emsp;—&emsp;&emsp;70 Three-point goals: Revere 1-7, Elyria Catholic 7-12. Field goals: Revere 10-36, Elyria Catholic 28-51. Free throws: Revere 6-12, Elyria Catholic 7-13. Rebounds: Revere 20 (Wojciak 4, A. Schiesswohl 4), Elyria Catholic 30 (Fisher 8). Total fouls: Revere 12, Elyria Catholic 11. Turnovers: Revere 16. Elyria Catholic 10.Junior varsity: Elyria Catholic, 38-35