The Lady Ravens from Rocky River evened up their match-up with the Bulldogs with Friday night’s upset win. Previously, Butler beat Rocky River convincingly 78-57 in December. However, head coach Shatori Jones made some key adjustments, and the ladies executed it perfectly on the hardwood with an excellent performance.
Rocky River started out of the gate quickly in the first period, making shots and maintaining a fast paced tempo. By the end of the first period they held an unexpected 9 point advantage with a 23-14 edge.
In the second period, the Bulldogs found the range, applied a full court press, played better defensively and made their run. They outscored the Lady Ravens during this run 21-10, and 25-11 in the period, to take a 5 point lead at the intermission 39-34. Micahla Funderburk led the comeback for the Bulldogs scoring 14 points in the first half. While the Ravens Mishya Scott had an outstanding first half scoring 14 points for the visitors.
In the third period, both teams battled competitively with Delayzha Dixon leading the attack for the Ravens. However, the two teams scored 18 points each, and Sophie Dean swished a 3 point shot near the end of the period to keep pace. The Ravens continued to trail by five points 57-52.
In the final period, the Ravens defense became very stingy. Andresia Alexander, the scrappy senior point guard took command of the offense dishing the ball off to Dixon, Scott, and Dean who all hit key shots during the the Ravens come from behind victory. Dixon hit multiple shots, Alexander hit her free throws, and Dean nailed her second 3 pointer of the game from the corner baseline. The Lady Ravens outscored their opponent 12-4 to secure the win. Their aggressive defense, strong rebounding and sinking their free throws in the end all contributed to the upset on the Bulldogs home court.
Dixon scored 19 points and grabbed 9 rebounds, Alexander had 16 points, 7 assists, Scott contributed 17 points and 5 rebounds for the Ravens.
The Lady Ravens will be at home on Tuesday night the 29th when they host Myers Park which should be a good contest and is an important game in the Southwestern 4-A Conference.
