The Elyria Catholic girls set three major goals as they prepared for the basketball season: improve their overall record, improve their North Coast League record and advance further in the postseason than last year.

The latter means advancing to a Division III regional tournament for the first time in the history of the program.

After Wednesday’s win at Cleveland Central Catholic, the Panthers were assured of beating their NCL record — 10-3, compared to 8-5 in 2009. And they’re all but assured of topping their ’09 overall record — 16-4 to date this year, with a strong likelihood of making it 17-4 in Saturday’s sectional tournament opener. EC finished 16-8 in ’09.

Providing they defeat Cleveland St. Martin De Porres in Wellington on Saturday afternoon — and there should be an investigation if they don’t — the Panthers will have just one more goal to scratch off the list, reaching the elusive Sweet 16.

They’ve made it to district finals twice, most recently last season, and lost both. In ’09, they were dismantled by eventual state champion Regina in the title game. But this year, Regina’s Royals are assigned to the Ashtabula district. If they win there, they advance to the Cuyahoga Falls regional, where EC could also appear.

The Panthers are willing to cross that bridge when — and if — they come to it. They think they’ll be there.
“That’s a very realistic goal,” said 6-foot post Sara Schneider, one of three seniors on the team. “We’re looking at our competition and we know that from here on out there is no team we don’t have a chance of winning against.”

“It’s pretty realistic,” said 5-11 junior post Ashley Schuster, who averages a double-double, 12 points and 10 rebounds a game. “We can do anything, but we have our good games and our off games. It just depends on how we come out and play. If we come out and play like we can, we can do anything.”

Coach Eric Rothgery said his players aren’t being overconfident when they talk like that.

“We’re the second seed in the tournament,” he said, “and it’s a good tournament this year. Independence has a good record, Columbia is always dangerous, and there’s Laurel School and Hillsdale. Loudonville is the No. 1 seed. We took a look at them a couple weeks ago and they have a good team. But we have a good team, too. We could win the district.”

Loudonville is ranked sixth this week in the Associated Press statewide poll. So it’s not like everyone is taking a trip to Cuyahoga Falls for granted. EC and Loudonville could meet for the district championship at 1 p.m. March 6 in Wellington.

“I expect to go to regionals,” said 5-5 senior guard Mimi Rothgery. “But I also expected to win the four games that we lost. Every single practice, we have to go all-out. We have a month or less left. We have to take every day as the most important day and work on everything we can to be the best.”

A strong point is the Panthers know each other very well. Some of them have been playing together for a long time.

“I actually started playing on an AAU team with some of the girls in the fifth grade,” 5-9 senior post Katie Shoemaker said. “Emily (Taylor) was on our team and we had Mimi and a ton of girls.”

An intangible result of familiarity is the kind of camaraderie that pervades the Panthers; in short, the overused “chemistry” one finds in discussions about good teams.

“I think that’s one of our strongest assets,” Mimi Rothgery said. “Most of us have been playing together since fifth grade when we played AAU. Emily played up with my team the entire time we played AAU, so we have a feel for each other that would take other teams years and years to get.”

The Panthers stumbled Monday night when they basically mailed in the fourth quarter against Akron Hoban. The result was a North Coast League defeat, 46-30. EC had been within four points early in the final period.

“We learned that we need to hustle after every single ball,” said 5-6 junior guard Myrasia Flowers, who has hit 16 3-point baskets. “Everybody has to give 100 percent and we all have to do the little things to be successful.”

“(Monday) night was hard, especially for the seniors,” said Shoemaker, one of the three seniors. “But we just have to get over it and be done with it. We have bigger and better things to do.”

“The best thing for us to do right now is not get down,” said Taylor, a 5-6 junior guard and the Panthers’ scoring leader at 14 points a game. She also leads with 17 3-point field goals. “We just need to get past the Hoban game.”

“I feel like we’re meant to go far,” said Mimi Rothgery, whose three steals and three assists per game lead the team. “We’ve been together so long and my dad being coach — I mean, he never thought that as coach this would just happen. It seems like it was all meant to happen, you know?”

Three goals, three seniors. The Panthers have another group of three. When someone yells “Shh!” at practice, it doesn’t necessarily mean that person is calling for quiet.

It most likely means Eric Rothgery or an assistant is trying to get the attention of one or more of the three starters whose last names begin with the “Sh” sound, which is sometimes confusing. That would be Schneider, Shoemaker and Schuster. They all play under the basket.

“It’s hilarious,” Schneider said. “In practice we always mix each other up. (Rothgery) will call me ‘Shoe’ or Ashley and we’re so interchangeable because we’re all posts and we’re all about the same height.”

Schuster said: “It’s fun having Sara and Katie, the other ‘Shushes,’ and me all together working hard and getting rebounds — getting everything.”

Contact Daniels at 329-7135 or basketball@bobdaniels.info.

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