Leopards Win 9th NBC Title, Cut Down Nets Vs. Carrollton – Boys Basketball

By Leopard Nation · Published February 18, 2017 · Updated February 20, 2017

Louisville 70, Carrollton 41

The Louisville Leopards downed the visiting Carrollton Warriors 70-41 on Senior Night Friday at Louisville High School. With the victory, Louisville improves to 14-7 and finishes as Co-NBC Champions with Alliance with a league record of 12-2.

Senior Chris Libertore was honored prior to the game not only as a Senior player, but for becoming the All-Time Leading Scorer in Louisville Basketball History. His jersey was retired making Friday the last time the number 23 would be worn in a game played on the LHS court. After that, Libertore continued on his scoring tear by dumping in a game-high 19. He also drew plenty of Carrollton defenders allowing his teammates to capitalize on open shots.

Louisville made 11 three-pointers in the contest compared to only 2 triples for Carrollton. Brandon Wahl led the Leopards with 5 and Derek Zeller also hit 4. Wahl would finish with 17 points and Zeller scored 14 points. Senior Brody Hahn and Jared Mathie also scored 7 each.

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Louisville wasted no time in gaining an early advantagey took a 23-9 lead at the end of the first and led by as much as 31-9 before Carrollton reached double figures.

The Warriors bounced back and cut the Leopard lead to 38-21 by halftime. Louisville stalled for the first two minutes of the third quarter as the clock ticked away. When play resumed, Carrollton continued their comeback. They used an 11-2 run to shrink the deficit to single digits at 40-32 midway through the third quarter.

A few minutes later, the Leopards began their take over. Mathie scored on a lay-in while being fouled via a pass from Max Hartline. This kickstarted a 16-0 Louisville run, which the Warriors did not put to rest until there were less than 5 minutes to play. The Leopards rolled to victory after that.

Carrollton was le by Krantz who scored a team-high 13. Russell also scored 10 and Bullard added 7 for the Warriors who fall to an even 11-11 overall and finish 8-6 in the NBC.

With the victory, Louisville has now defeated Carrollton in four straight meetings. The Leopards lead the all-time series 47-29 dating back to their first recorded season in 1926.

The Louisville Leopards have now won 9 NBC Titles with this being the 5th time that they have shared the crown. Alliance also clinched a share of their 6th NBC Title after defeating Marlington Friday. The Aviators are now tied for the second most along with the Canton South Wildcats. Louisville Basketball has now won 15 league titles in their history (9 NBC, 5 Tri-County, 1 Federal League).

This is the third NBC Championship won under Head Coach Tom Siegfried, which is the most of any coach in team history. He passes Joe Harold (1992, 1993), Bill Eddins (2000, 2001), and Matt Miglich (2005, 2007) who all won 2 title each.

UP NEXT: The Leopards will next travel to Lake to take on the Blue Streaks on Tuesday, February 21 in the season finale. JV will start at 6:00 PM and Varsity will follow around 7:30 PM.