Girls basketball: Lily Pierre scores 22 to lead Open Door past Christian Community

ELYRIA — Open Door coach Israel Cintron was looking for intensity from his team. Monday night the Patriots delivered. Lily Pierre scored a game-high 22 points and six Patriots got in the scorebook as Open Door led wire-to-wire in a 51-33 win over Christian Community in a non-league game. Pierre, who came in averaging 14.4 points a game, scored seven points in the first quarter as the Patriots opened a 13-6 lead. She also scored 13 of Open Door's 24 second-half points. "Some of my shots went in but many of them didn't," Pierre said. "I have to thank my teammates who helped me out a lot. I was happy to see many of them come out of their comfort zone and put up more shots then they usually do." After starting the year 2-4, Open Door has won four of its last six games to improve to 6-6. "On main word is intensity, that's something we've been working on in practice," Cintron said. "When you have the lead you want to hold on to it and feel good about it. It makes us happy when we can play with the lead." When Pierre wasn't scoring, the rest of Open Door's starting five played equal roles in pushing the lead to 20 points in the fourth quarter. Amylia Cintron has eight points for the Patriots while Ava Drew, Anna Koglman and Juliana Moon added six each. Pierre also had a game-high 13 rebounds. In recent weeks, the Patriots have struggled against bigger Lorain County League teams like Columbia and Brookside. However, Pierre said those games gave Open Door confidence it could compete against anyone on its schedule. "We learn a lot from those losses," Pierre said. "Sometimes it's discouraging but we like to take it as courage for the next games. Those game teach us intensity and get us excited for our next games against teams closer to our size." There were positive signs for the Warriors, who had seven players score, led by Lyla Miller's 10 points. Christian Community played hard for 32 minutes and shot well from beyond the arc, making four 3-pointers. Turnovers doomed the Warriors, however, as they committed 33 to just 15 for Open Door. "Our biggest problem was turnovers, especially in the first quarter," Christian Community coach Steve Szunyog said. "That's led to us giving up a number of easy buckets underneath." Juliet Hammond came off the bench to score seven points, all coming in the fourth quarter, while Adelynn McKee scored six. The Warriors started the season 5-3 but have dropped four of their last five to fall to 6-7. "I'm proud of how the girls played tonight, they never quit, not even for one second," Szunyog said. 'It just shows us we have to take care of the ball better." Monday began a stretch of four games in eight days for the Patriots, who are back in action today at First Baptist. "Even though we didn't win against Columbia we walked out of that game knowing we could play with intensity," Cintron said. "We continued that today and we have to keep that intensity going." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Open Door 51, Christian Community 33 CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY (33): Ella Szunyog 1-0-2, Adelynn McKee 3-0-6, Julia Restivo 1-0-2, Anne Blumfeldt 1-0-3, Juliet Hammond 3-0-7, Lyla Miller 4-0-10, Joey Arnold 1-1-3. Totals 14-1-33.OPEN DOOR (51): Ava Drew 3-0-6, Lily Pierre 9-3-22, Annie Pierre 1-1-3, Anna Koglman 3-0-6, Juliana Moon 3-0-6, Amylia Cintron 4-0-8. Totals 23-4-51. Christian Community&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;6&emsp;&emsp;11&emsp; &emsp;6&emsp;&emsp;10&emsp;&emsp;—&emsp;&emsp;33Open Door&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; &emsp;13&emsp;&emsp;14&emsp;&emsp;10&emsp;&emsp;14&emsp;&emsp;—&emsp;&emsp;51 Three-point goals: Christian Community (Miller 2, Blumfeldt, Hammond), Open Door (Miller). Field goals: Christian Community 14-46 (30 percent), Open Door 23-72 (32 percent). Free throws: Christian Community 1-9 (11 percent), Open Door 4-9 (44 percent). Rebounds: Christian Community 43, Open Door 45. Turnovers: Christian Community 33, Open Door 15. Team Fouls: Christian Community 11, Open Door 9.