Regional Girls Basketball: Elyria Catholic gets another crack at highly touted Laurel after last season's tournament loss

When Elyria Catholic takes the court Wednesday night against Laurel at Canton Memorial Fieldhouse in a Division IV regional semifinal, it will be like 2025 all over again except further along the tournament trail. The Panthers (18-6) and Gators (18-4) played last year in a district final at Akron North High School with Laurel coming out on top, 50-40, on its way to a second consecutive state tournament appearance. This year Elyria Catholic is making its first regional appearance since 2020, and if the Panthers want to continue their season they're going to have to find a way to stop a Laurel team that returns its entire starting lineup from last year's encounter, led by UNLV commit Tristan Williams. "They've got a couple of outstanding shooters and obviously Tristan is a one-of-a-kind type player," Elyria Catholic coach Eric Rothgery said. "We have to work on defending Tristan, keeping her out of the key and putting some hands up in some faces on their shooters." On the Laurel side, the team has a hunger to get back to Dayton and bring home the school's first state title. "The girls talk every day about wanting to get back there and get another chance. They've been working hard all year just for this opportunity," said Laurel coach David Meyer. Meyer is the school's athletic director and returned to the sideline this season after a 12-year absence. Although Laurel rolled through the district tournament, defeating Conneaut and Lutheran West by an average of 58 points, Meyer knows it will have a tougher challenge with the Panthers. "We know Elyria Catholic is pretty good and we're looking forward to the game," Meyer said. "Eric's a good coach, he's been over there forever and he does a great job. We're all excited to play them." Both teams hope to learn something from last year's game in which the Panthers held Williams to 13 points only to see Liv Schneider step up and hit five 3-pointers for the Gators. Elyria Catholic outscored Laurel in the second half but was unable to overcome a 26-11 halftime deficit. "I thought we defended well last year, we just couldn't make shots," Rothgery said. "We've got to come out and defend well again but we've just got to knock down a few shots, too. "Our goal is to hold them to around 40, so we're putting in a lot of time defensively in practice this week." No team has held the Gators to 40 this season. Their low in points was 46, against Cincinnati Mount Notre Dame and Fort Frye. Avon Lake limited Laurel to 47 in an early season loss at the Cleveland Basketball Classic. Williams leads Laurel with 22.2 points a game. Schneider and junior Jordan Meyer average more than 11. The Panthers were led in the regular season by sophomore Ari Dimacchia, who averaged 11 points, and junior Claire Petrus, who averaged 10.7. Dimacchia and Petrus are also Elyria Catholic's top two rebounders with 10.4 and 8.9 a game. "Our strength in a lot of games is in the post position we have two bigs and sometimes it becomes hard to match up. If we can get any kind of mismatches, we'll try to exploit them," Rothgery said. Both team played strong schedules. Elyria Catholic opened its season against defending Division IV state champion Bellevue. As an independent the Gators were able to craft an elite schedule of the top teams in the state. Laurel played 20 games against OHSAA schools, and 12 of those opponents won district championships. "You can't even quantify how important those moments were," Meyer said. "The losses that we took early in the season were as important for us as the wins, to be completely honest. They came at the right time against great opponents. "By the time we get to this point in the postseason I don't think we're going to see anything we haven't seen from the opponents we've faced." The Panthers are playing in their sixth regional tournament since 2011. "This time of year is a lot of fun. It's a great time of year for high school basketball," Rothgery said. Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.