LORAIN - Friday night’s loss to Elyria in the opening round of the Lorain County Holiday Classic wasn’t just hard for Elyria Catholic to digest because it was a loss. It also hurt because the team had spent the previous six months gearing up for and preparing to play their crosstown rivals for the first time since 2004.

Panthers coach Eric Rothgery was admittedly concerned about how his girls would respond Saturday in the consolation game against Keystone.

Not to worry.

Elyria Catholic proved resilient, winning a tough 40-37 battle with the Wildcats at Admiral King High School’s Shot Palace.

“I know it had to be hard to play a game immediately after playing a game like last night’s was,” Rothgery said of the Panthers’ 43-29 loss to the Pioneers. “It was hard for me as a coach to put it behind me and focus on this one. To the kids’ credit, that’s exactly what they did. I couldn’t be prouder of them, from that aspect.

“The girls were looking forward to that Elyria game since it was announced way back in March. So it was very disheartening to lose like that after all of that build up. Tonight’s result was a credit to the mental toughness they had. Now we can look forward to the rest of the season.”

Like the Elyria game, EC’s matchup with Keystone came down to the final minute of play. Unlike Friday night, EC held a three-point lead and made it stand up with some nice defensive stops.

Wildcat senior Kim Kokoski, who led all scorers with 17 points, buried a 3-pointer at the one minute mark to cut EC’s lead to 40-37, setting up the final minute.

EC junior Anna McNeeley was fouled with 56.5 seconds remaining and missed both of her free throws. But after a Keystone turnover, EC ran the clock down to 20.8 seconds remaining before Mimi Rothgery was fouled.

The 5-foot-5 senior missed the front-end of a one-and-one, and Keystone’s Kenzie Conrad grabbed the rebound. Keystone coach Scott Terry called a timeout with 15.8 seconds left, setting up the final play.

EC guarded the perimeter tight, not allowing any clean looks from 3-point range. Becky Nielsen finally unleashed one, but it clanged off the rim. Keystone controlled the rebound and tried get the ball out for one last desperation attempt, but Kokoski was fouled before she could cross the arc with 0.7 seconds remaining.

Kokoski deliberately missed the front end of her one-and-one, but the buzzer sounded before the Wildcats could do anything with the rebound.

“(EC) does a real nice job with screen-and-rolling,” Terry said. “We got burned a couple of times on that and on some silly inbounds plays where we weren’t paying attention. Just a lot of little things. Nothing major that we totally need to revamp, but there’s just a lot of little things that we have to get better at.

“We have to be a little more comfortable in crunch situations than we have in the past two games. We’ve panicked a little bit and the nerves got to us a little bit. But it’s a learning experience, and being in two tough basketball games this weekend is, no doubt, going to make us better.”

Thanks to a nice defensive second quarter and a big offensive third quarter, the Wildcats took a 29-28 lead into the fourth. They quickly made it 31-28 on a Conrad layup, but EC began to exploit its size advantage, pounding the ball inside for 6-0 junior Sara Schneider and 5-11 senior Ashley Schuster.

The duo scored six of the Panthers’ 12 fourth-quarter points. It was Schuster’s putback early in the quarter that gave EC a 32-31 advantage and, after a Kokoski 3-pointer tied it with 4:52 remaining, it was Schuster’s 3-foot runner that gave EC a 36-34 lead - a lead it never relinquished.

“It helps out a lot (with) me and Ashley being almost 6-foot,” said Schneider, who tied Schuster with a team-high 12 points and led everyone with 11 rebounds. “We can basically just rebound and it helps a lot with our team. Height advantage is definitely a big part of my basketball game, and I use it to my advantage.

“We were really disappointed with how the game turned out yesterday, and we basically put it all behind us and we knew we had to give it our all today or else we’d get run over. We knew we had to win this game today, and we did it.”

Schuster finished with 10 rebounds, giving both of EC’s bigs double-doubles.

Emily Taylor added 11 points for EC. Conrad added six points and seven rebounds, while Emily Nagy added five points and a team-high eight boards for Keystone.

“A win’s a win, and we’re happy to get one,” Rothgery said. “This was a credit to their resiliency. They all felt bad after last night, and we talked in the locker room about how this game was a gut check. This was a good tough weekend to start the season off with.”

Contact Dan Gilles at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

Elyria Catholic 40, Keystone 37

ELYRIA CATHOLIC (4O): Sara Schneider 6-0-12, Ashley Schuster 6-0-12, Emily Taylor 5-0-11, Katie Shoemaker 1-1-3, Mimi Rothgery 0-0-0, Myriasia Flowers 1-0-2, Tory Rothgery 0-0-0, Anna McNeely 0-0-0, Juliana Tremont 0-0-0. Totals 19-1-40.

KEYSTONE (37): Kim Kokoski 7-0-17, Kenzie Conrad 2-2-6, Emily Nagy 2-0-5, Becky Nielsen 1-0-2, Casidy Gregory 0-0-0, Alisha Silva 2-0-4, Molly Cornish 1-1-3, Danielle Wilmoth 0-0-0, Mallory Nagy 0-0-0, Karli Sturgill 0-0-0. Totals 15-3-37.

Elyria Catholic             11            5              12            12            -           40
Keystone                          6              8              15            8              -           37

Three-point goals: Elyria Catholic 1-7 (14 percent): Taylor; Keystone 4-12 (33 percent): Kokoski 3, E. Nagy. Field  goals: Elyria Catholic 19-57 (33 percent); Keystone 15-45 (33 percent). Free throws: Elyria Catholic 1-8 (13 percent); Keystone 3-9 (33 percent). Rebounds: Elyria Catholic 37 (Schneider 11, Schuster 10), Keystone 38 (E. Nagy 8, Conrad 7). Turnovers: Elyria Catholic 10, Keystone 19.

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