Leopards Welcome Salem to NBC, Win 68-61
FULL VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
Louisville 68, Salem 61
Jake O’brien hit 5 three-pointers and tallied a game-high 21 points in leading Louisville over Salem 68-61 in a rare Saturday afternoon contest at Louisville High School. Mike Kelly also scored 10 points to help the Leopards earn their first NBC victory in the new gymnasium.
The atmosphere was strange Saturday afternoon at LHS as the Leopards and Quakers made up their game previously postponed the night before. There was no band, there were no cheerleaders (because they were at the NBC cheer competition), and there was little crowd noise. But one thing there was plenty of was Leopards offense.
Louisville racked up 68 points eclipsing their previous highest season total of 67 which was ironically against the Quakers…of New Philadelphia. Louisville shot 50% from the field and hit 7 of 19 three-point attempts.
After battling back-and-forth in the opening period, Louisville found themselves trailing Salem 18-14. That margin flipped the other way around when O’brien opened up the second quarter with 8 unanswered points, which included 2 triples. After a Quaker basket, Alex Hollifield made a bucket while being fouled and converted the extra free throw to up the Louisville lead to 25-20.
The Quakers battled back getting a three-pointer from Zach Economous and then 8 more points from Ryan Bush. Bush would hit a three-ball in the waning seconds of the first half to give the Quakers a 33-31 lead.
Halftime was the last time the Leopards trailed as they came out of the locker room on fire to start the third period. O’brien hit a long ball, Alex Schooley had a steal and score, and Kelly hit a three-pointer. All of the sudden Louisville led 40-33. While Salem tried to peck into the lead, there efforts were short-lived because O’brien found his target on another three-pointer and Hollifield also followed suit to make it 46-37 Leps.
Salem’s Brendan Webb and Trent Kenreigh connected on back-to-back three-pointers to end the third quarter, which left the Quakers down just 48-45 heading into the final period. Kenreigh would finish the game with 14 points for Salem and add another bucket to cut the lead to just one.
Kelly then got an offensive board on the other end, completely faked out two Salem defenders, and bounced home a layup. Trevor Meredith followed that up by scoring while being hacked to give Louisville a five point advantage. More shifty moves by Kelly led to another Leopard basket, but Bush hit home from the far right corner for the Quakers to cut the Louisville lead to 55-52.
This was the Leopards game to win and they continued to take it to the Salem defense. O’brien froze defenders and hit a short jumper. Then Meredith was fouled again while scoring and this time he converted the bonus free throw. 60-52 Leps.
A little later, the largest dagger came when O’brien found Bill Lairson wide open down court. Just like on the football field, Lairson reeled in the ball and then scored for the Leopards giving them a double digit advantage at 64-54. The Leps would hit 8 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter and shutdown the Quakers when it most counted to earn their third win of the year.
Louisville is now 2-0 on games played on Saturday and 3-8 overall. Louisville will be looking for revenge when they travel to Carrollton this Friday.
STATISTICS
QUAKERS: Bush 7 2-3 19, Kenreigh 5 3-3 14, Webb 3 2-2 9, Shivers 2 3-8 7, Economous 2 0-0 6, Myers 1 0-0 2, Penick 1 0-0 2, Wolfgang 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 22 10-16 61.
TEAM FG: 22-54 41%
TEAM 3PT: 7-25 28%
TEAM FT: 10-16 63%
LEOPARDS: O’brien 7 2-3 21, Kelly 3 3-5 10, Cheezan 3 0-0 6, Hollifield 2 1-1 6, Meredith 2 2-4 6, Schooley 2 2-4 6, Hostetler 2 0-0 4, McQuilkin 0 4-6 4, Carter 1 0-0 2, Lairson 1 0-0 2, Duckworth 0 1-2 1, Crank 0 0-2 0. TOTALS 23 15-27 68.
TEAM FG: 23-48 48%
TEAM 3PT: 7-19 37%
TEAM FT: 15-27 56%
Team 1-2-3-4-Total
Salem 18-15-12-16–61
Louisville 14-17-17-20–68
Rebounds: Louisville 25-24
Fouls: Salem 19-14
Records: Louisville 3-8, 2-5; Salem 4-6, 2-5
NEXT UP: The Leopards will next travel to Carrollton to face the Warriors on Friday, January 20. JV will tip at 6:00 and Varsity will follow at approximately 7:30. The Warriors have taken the last 3 games in the series, but the Leps won the 3 meetings before that. Louisville holds a 33-11 record over Carrollton in NBC games all-time beginning when Louisville joined the conference in the 1989-90 season.
PICTURES
JV REPORT
Louisville 66, Salem 39
The Leopards dominated the Quakers from the outset as they built a 26-2 first quarter lead and rolled to a 66-39 victory. Alex Hollifield scored a game-high 16 points, while Joey Duckworth and Riley Greybeal each added 9. The huge difference in the game was foul shooting. Louisville converted on 19 of 33 free throws, while Salem only attempted 13 total shots from the stride. The Quakers were led by Austin Frank who scored a team-high 14 points, while Ronnie Carter also had 8 for the Leps. The JV Squard is now 7-4 overall and 5-2 against NBC opponents.
JV PICTURES
JV STATISTICS
QUAKERS: Frank 4 6-7 14, Dolphin 3 0-0 8, Bezon 3 1-2 7, Frederickson 1 0-0 3, Hoover 1 0-0 2, Jenkins 1 0-0 2, Weikert 1 0-0 2, Popa 0 1-4 1. TOTALS 14 8-13 39.
3PT: 3 | Dolphin (2), Frederickson (1)
TEAM FT: 8-13 62%
LEOPARDS: Hollifield 7 0-2 16, Duckworth 3 3-6 9, Greybeal 1 7-8 9, Carter 2 4-7 8, Mathie 3 0-1 6, Hoover 2 0-0 4, Bast 0 3-4 3, Parks 1 0-0 3, Brown 1 0-2 2, Hahn 1 0-1 2, Heyford 0 2-2 2, Andy Minster 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 22 19-33 66.
3PT: 3 | Hollifield (2), Parks (1)
TEAM FT: 19-33 58%
Team 1-2-3-4–Total
Salem 2-14-15-8–39
Louisville 26-13-12-15–66
Fouls: Salem 24-14
