They battled hard all season

​Down 23-39 after three quarters, the Rocky Grove girls decided to make the most of the last eight minutes of their season and give Jamestown a fight to the end Wednesday night at Sharon High School. 
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“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish… go finish,” Brad Clayton told his scrappy squad of basketball players. “And they did everything they could to finish.”

The Orioles came off the bench ready to fight and went on a 10-point run. Rae Montgomery started things off with a quick two points to open the final stanza of play.

Lydia Kennedy added one from the line, then eight seconds later Montgomery hit for another two.

Kennedy connected for two of her own before Montgomery battled through for another two.

Ainsely Anderson contributed one from the line.

The gap was shrunk to 33-39. 

Unfortunately for the Orioles, the Muskies were just too much to reel in as they adjusted their play and forced Rocky Grove to foul on defense to preserve time on the clock. 
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Adding to the difficulty, with less than two minutes left in play, Montgomery and Emily Rice each fouled out  10 seconds of each other.

Down 35-49 and without their senior stars, the Orioles continued to play hard with Kennedy putting in the game’s last points with 25 seconds to go.
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“That’s who they are…Emily and Rae left it all out there. That’s them battling,” Clayton said of his team after the tough 37-49 loss in the 1A District 10 playoffs.

The team’s goal at the start of the season was to win six games. They did that plus one. 

“I’m so proud of them. They are in a tough region,” Clayton said of the 2024 season, which was filled mainly with schools in
class AA.
 
On Wednesday, the Orioles had to play without senior Paige Cresswell and her younger sister Zoe Cresswell, who were both injured during different games earlier in the season. 

Montgomery finished her career with one more game as the team’s high scorer – recording 11 points on the night. Fellow senior Rice had 7 points, including a three-pointer. 

“They are outstanding seniors (and) great kids,” Clayton said of Montgomery, Rice, and Paige Cresswell.  "They will be missed."

Underclassmen Kennedy, Anderson and Grasen Reyburn added 11, seven and two points to the Rocky Grove effort and, perhaps more importantly, gained experience from their first playoff game. 

“We are hoping to build on this (experience),” Clayton said of the future. 

Special thank you  to Copley Notary for their support of Eight & 322 and Rocky Grove girls basketball this year. great things are happening in the future of Oriole athletics..