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Lowellville gets past Campbell in Battle of the River rivalry

Staff photo / Dan Hiner. Lowellville’s Alyssa Kuzan (14) goes up for a layup during the fourth quarter of Friday morning’s game against Campbell at Memorial High School.

CAMPBELL — The morning fog was still heavy along the Mahoning River, but just outside Campbell Memorial High School, the cheers of students could be heard from the parking lot.

Amid black Campbell shirts, a Lowellville whiteout and an animated crowd, the Rockets took care of business on the road. The Lowellville girls basketball team won 40-26 to take the Battle of the River on Friday morning.

“It’s really different playing in a gym as loud as that, with so many people there,” Lowellville’s Morgan Lewis said. “We just needed to stay focused throughout the game, keep the energy and block out all the noise.”

It was the first meeting since 2023 for the two schools that are separated by a four-mile drive along the Mahoning River. It was an eventful day for the two schools, with the girls game kicking off a doubleheader with the boys teams clashing in the afternoon.

The girls’ game tipped off at 10 a.m., and both teams needed a little time to wake up.

Neither team scored for the first few minutes of the game, and the offenses were sluggish throughout the first quarter. However, the Rockets (9-10, 6-6 Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Scarlet Tier) got into a little bit of a rhythm and took a 10-4 lead by the end of the opening period.

The Red Devils (2-16, 0-11 MVAC Scarlet) got a couple shots to fall and cut the deficit to 17-9 late in the second quarter. Turnovers and offensive rebounds helped the Rockets keep the pressure on Campbell, and Lowellville took a 21-12 lead into the break.

“We were trying to create some things offensively through our defense, and I thought we did a good job getting that cushion (on the scoreboard),” Lowellville head coach Lisa Modelski said. “Offensively, some of our shots from our normal shooters just weren’t falling, but I thought if we settled in, spread the floor a little bit, we’d be able to hit some gaps to the rim. I thought we did that, just missed some easy bunnies down the stretch.”

Lowellville’s defense continued to generate turnovers, and bigs like Michelle Cavna’s work on the offensive glass created second-chance opportunities for an offense that still struggled in the second half. Those were the ingredients for a dominant third quarter by the Rockets, who outscored the Red Devils 15-7 in the third and took a 36-19 lead into the fourth.

Campbell’s offense never found its footing on Friday, and the deficit was too much to overcome.

“They shot better at the free-throw line. We shot 3-for-16, 3-for-17, something like that,” Campbell head coach Ashlyn Cleevely said. “And half the rebounds … our rebounds, we’ve been preaching rebounds. We’ve been outrebounded almost every single game. Today, they were a little more aggressive than they were, so it was good to see they were at least giving effort and energy.”

Rayanan Floyd-Brown led the Red Devils with eight points, and Yaleiska Diaz was second on the team with seven points.

Morgan Lewis led all scorers with 13 points. Cavna added 10 points, and Sydney Procick chipped in eight more.

“It’s a loud, crazy environment,” Modelski said. “I think it’s great for our girls to play in these situations. Coming in, we just had to settle down. We had to slow the pace down a little bit, get rid of that adrenaline and that nervous energy and play our game.”

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