ELYRIA — Bad ankles and all, Ariel Calhoun was bound to lead Clearview on a run at Elyria Catholic on Monday night. Everyone in the EC Coliseum knew it.
No one was disappointed. Calhoun, playing on sore ankles, led a 12-0 run late in the game as the Clippers tried to fight back from a 16-point deficit. It made their non-conference game interesting and close, but it wasn’t enough.
Panthers sophomore Mimi Rothgery made three of four foul shots in the final 18 seconds to preserve a 49-42 victory, EC’s ninth in 18 games. Clearview fell to 10-8.
“We knew a run was coming,” said Panthers coach Pat Higley. “We didn’t know when it was coming, but the entire second half we talked about the fact that they were going to make a run. That’s a good team. They have two studs with Calhoun and Alex Wright and that was our focus tonight.
“Overall, we held it together and we made some free throws when we needed them,” Higley said. “This was a good win.”    
As is becoming the norm, the star of the EC show was freshman guard Emily Taylor, who scored a game-high 21 points and who knew — as she lay on the cold, hard court in the fourth quarter — that she had broken her left ankle. She hadn’t.
“I thought I did something way worse than it actually was,” Taylor said, laughing about how a Clearview player had fallen on her near the Clippers basket. “I thought my ankle broke. A big girl falling on me just freaks me out.”
Taylor, who was injured in a preseason scrimmage, sat out a little more than a minute and returned.
Clearview trailed 46-30 when its big push started with just under four minutes to play. Calhoun, one of the top guards in Northeast Ohio, hit a shot from the left side of the lane, then added four straight foul shots. Sarah Scheithauer made another and Adriene Ward followed with a field goal from the left side of the lane.
Then Scheithauer put Clearview fans on their feet when she drained a 3-point basket with 20 seconds left and cut the EC lead to 46-42. At that point, the Panthers’ Rothgery went to work on the foul line to put it out of reach.
“I’ve been more relaxed lately,” Rothgery said of her foul shooting. “I was really stiff in the beginning of the season and I learned, like, not to think about it too much and I’ve been playing better.”
Higley said it dawned on him as Clearview was closing the gap that it would be efficacious to have Rothgery on the foul line. He said she is the team’s best free-throw shooter and who could dispute it? The Panthers were just 4-of-17 from the foul line for the game and are shooting barely 50 percent for the season.
“It’s my fault that we didn’t get her the ball sooner,” Higley said. “A light bulb went on with 30 seconds left that should have gone on about a minute and a half earlier. So we called timeout and made sure we got it in her hands.”
Clearview coach Don Collier was impressed by the Clippers’ late run.
“That’s a credit to our seniors,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how banged up we are, they’re not going to quit. They’re going to play to the buzzer.
“I’m extremely proud of my team this year. They’re giving it everything they’ve got. (Calhoun) just has tons of heart. She’s probably playing at 50 percent right now.”
Rothgery had her second double-figures game of the season, adding 10 points to the EC cause. And the Panthers’ Stephanie Recko finished with eight points, six in the third quarter when EC went on a 10-4 run to lead 34-18.
Calhoun scored a team-high 16 points, a dozen in the second half. She made eight straight foul shots without a miss after the break and was the only Clippers player in double figures. Clearview made 14 of 18 free throws for the game.
Elyria Catholic 49, Clearview 42
CLEARVIEW (42): Mercedes Thompson 2-0-5, Sarah Scheithauer 1-1-4, Adriene Ward 1-0-2, Jody Zellers 0-0-0, Ariel Calhoun 3-10-16, Kristen Marcucci 2-1-5, Shayla Evans 1-0-2, Myia Bason 0-0-0, Gabby Suppa 1-0-2, Sarah Simmons 0-0-0, Alex Wright 2-2-6. Totals 13-14-42.
ELYRIA CATHOLIC (49): Stephanie Recko 4-0-8, Mimi Rothgery 3-4-10, Emily Taylor 10-0-21, Molly O’Malley 0-0-0, Katherine McNeeley 0-0-0, Katie Shoemaker 1-0-2, Ashley Schuster 1-0-2, Sara Schneider 3-0-6. Totals 22-4-49.
Clearview    8    6    12    16    —    42
Elyria Catholic    13    8    17    11    —    49
3-point goals: Clearview 2-8 (M. Thompson, Scheithauer); Elyria Catholic 1-5 (Taylor). Field goals: Clearview 13-48 (27.1 percent); Elyria Catholic 22-44 (50 percent). Free throws: Clearview 145-18; Elyria Catholic 4-17. Rebounds: Clearview 32; Elyria Catholic 23. Turnovers: Clearview 21; Elyria Catholic 16. Fouled out: Shoemaker, Marcucci.
Junior varsity: Elyria Catholic, 40-11. 

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.

Need help? Email Us.