Opening Battle With Crusaders Goes Cold for Leps 40-36

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Central Catholic 40, Louisville 36

The Louisville Leopards came up on the short end of a cold opening battle with the Central Catholic Crusaders 40-36 Tuesday Night.  Jake O’brien scored 11 points and Mike Kelly also added 10 points to lead the Leopards.

Nothing.  That’s what the scoreboard read inside of Central Catholic High School for the first three and half minutes of the contest.  Kelly finally broke the scoreless shooting struggle from the field by picking off a pass and going coast to coast.  Not only did he make the layup, but he drew a foul and converted the extra charity shot.

On defense, Louisville kept Central scoreless until the 2:50 mark of the opening quarter when Alex Farris powered in his only bucket of the ball game.  The Leopards matched the favor with a bucket on the other end before the balloon finally popped for Central.  The Crusaders scored on three lay-ins that all drew an extra trip to the line.  Central failed to convert on any of their free throws, but Scott Farey capped off a 9-0 Crusader run by burying home a three in the final minute of the quarter.  O’brien returned the favor for the Leopards to cut the Louisville deficit to 11-8 at the end of one.

Both teams spread the ball around on offense and played an even 11-11 second quarter.  A huge chance for the Crusaders to extend their advantage was taken away by a mammoth Trevor Meredith block in the waning seconds of the half to keep the score 22-19.

The green machine extended their lead to 26-21 before the Leopards scored the next seven points in a span of 75 seconds.  An O’brien three-pointer tied the game at 26-26 before Jeremy McQuilkin picked off an in-bounds pass & threw a cross-court spiral to a streaking Alex Schooley who laid it in to give Louisville their first lead since the first quarter.  The patient Leopards kept their two-point advantage heading into the fourth quarter up 32-30.

Then the drought took over.  The boys in Carolina Blue failed to score until Kelly hit the front end of a 1-and-1 with 2:07 left in the final quarter.  Consequently Central seized the opportunity to build their lead to 39-33 before Meredith punched in the Leopards only field goal of the period 6:29 into the quarter.  Meredith was also fouled on the play and nailed home the free throw to keep the Leps within a single possession at 39-36.

A traveling violation and three straight missed free throws by the Crusaders kept the Leopards alive.  But, Louisville was equally as poor going 0 for 3 from the field and 0 of 2 from the line in the final minute of the game.

Joe Piciacchio finally sealed the deal for Central by flushing home the back-end of a double bonus free throw with two seconds remaining in the game.  In a game that featured the teams combining to shoot 34% from the field (unofficially), just 40% from the free throw line, 29 fouls, and bundles of turnovers, the hometown Crusaders edged the Leopards 40-36.

STATISTICS

CRUSADERS: Schirtzinger 6 0-4 12, Farey 3 2-2 9, Green 3 1-2 7, Piciacchio 2 2-5 6, Farris 1 0-0 2, Grimes 1 0-0 2, Nodo 1 0-1 2, Hawk 0 0-1 0.  TOTALS 17 5-15 40.

3PT (1): Farey (1)

TEAM FT: 5-15 33%

TEAM FG: 17-40 43% (Unofficially)

LEOPARDS: O’brien 3 0-0 11, Kelly 3 4-5 10, Meredith 4 1-5 9, Cheezan 1 0-0 2, Lairson 1 0-0 2, Schooley 1 0-0 2.  TOTALS 14 5-10 36.

3PT (3): O’brien (3)

TEAM FT: 5-10 50%

TEAM FG: 14-50 28%

Team 1-2-3-4–Total

Louisville 8-11-13-4–36

Central 11-11-8-10–40

Fouls: Louisville 16-13

NEXT UP: The Leopards will open the gym by hosting the Carrollton Warriors on Friday, December 9.  JV will tip at 6:00 and Varsity will follow at approximately 7:30.

PICTURES

JV REPORT

Central Catholic 46, Louisville 43

The JV squad came up just short in their first game of the season despite superb performances from Kyle Bast who poured in 17 points and Alex Hollifield who dropped in 13.  The Leopards outscored Central 31-22 in the second half, but it was not enough to erase a double-digit deficit halftime deficit created by a sluggish opening period.

JV PICTURES

JV STATISTICS

LEOPARDS: Bast 7 3-3 17, Hollifield 4 4-5 13, Andy Minster 2 0-0 6, Duckworth 2 0-2 4, AJ Minster 1 0-0 3.  TOTALS 16 7-10 43.

3PT (4): Andy Minster (2), Hollifield (1) AJ Minster (1)

TEAM FT: 7-10 70%

CRUSADERS: Regula 6 0-0 12, Russell 3 6-8 12, Blakeney 4 1-2 9, Saisler 2 0-0 5, Murphy 1 1-2 3, Pleasant 1 0-0 2, Sireilla 1 0-1 2, Licaj 0 0-1 0.  TOTALS 18 8-14 46.

3PT (1): Shisler (1)

TEAM FT: 8-14 57%

Team 1-2-3-4–Total

Louisville 4-8-16-15–43

Central 11-13-11-11–46

Fouls: Louisville 16-10

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