Louisville Falls in Squeaker Against Marlington – Boys Basketball
Marlington 53, Louisville 51
The Louisville Leopards Boys Varsity Basketball team rallied back in the final minutes, but came up just 
short against the visiting Marlington Dukes 53-51 Tuesday Night at Louisville High School. With the loss, Louisville drops to 2-4 overall and 2-1 in the NBC.
The Leopards were led by Chris Libertore who scored a game-high 22 points. Brandon Wahl also poured in 16 for Louisville. Both Libertore and Wahl hit 4 three-pointers a piece as the Leopards cashed in 10 total makes from beyond the arch in the game.
Louisville trailed by double digits at 52-42 with just 1:57 left in the contest. Kickstarted by a technical foul on the Marlington bench, the Leopards would score the next 9 points to trim the Dukes lead to the narrowest of margins.
Wahl hit a huge three to make it 52-49 with 38.6 left to play. Just seven seconds later, a wayward Marlington pass went out of bounds give the ball back to Louisville. On the ensuing possession, Libertore was fouled in the lane putting him to the line fore the bonus. He canned both charity shots and cut the Dukes lead to 52-51 with 18.6 seconds remaining.
After a Leopards foul, Brock Himmelheber hit a free throw and Sean Cooley pulled down the rebound for Marlington after the second shot that missed. Cooley passed the ball back out to Blane Himmelheber who was fouled with 13.4 seconds remaining. Louisville gained new life when both free throws missed their mark.
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On the final possession, the Leopards had two chances to win the game. The first missed its mark and went out of bounds off a Dukes player with 1.6 seconds left. The final Louisville prayer went unanswered from the right corner lifting Marlington to the 53-51 win.
Andrew Brady scored a team-high 19 points to lead the Dukes. Cooley also dropped in 13 and Austin Brady scored 6. Marlington is now 3-1 on the season and remains an undefeated 2-0 in conference play.
The loss snaps the Leopards 5-game winning streak against the Dukes. Louisville still leads the all-time series 66-39 overall, which includes a 35-17 record against Marlington at LHS.
UP NEXT: The Leopards will next travel to Alliance to take on the Aviators on Friday, December 23. JV will begin at 6:00 PM and Varsity will follow around 7:30 PM.
