Girls Basketball Tops Minerva in Rare Triple Overtime Game
Louisville 45, Minerva 41, 3OT
The Louisville Lady Leopards mounted a late fourth quarter rally to send the game into overtime. Three overtimes later, Louisville prevailed past visiting Minerva 45-41. With the win, the Lady Leopards improve to 9-8 overall and 7-4 in league play.
Sarah Lairson scored a game-high 18 points to lead Louisville. Only four other Leopards scored in the contest and they included Abby Beaver 8, Sabryna Benzel 7, Alexa Oberster 7, and Grace Jackson 5.
It was Jackson’s layup with 1:05 left in the fourth quarter that completed the Louisville rally and knotted the game at 39-39. Just 42 seconds prior to that Minerva had gone ahead 39-35 via a Bri Gassman basket that capped a 6-0 Lions run.
On the next possession, Minerva elected to run the clock and take the final shot. Their effort was 
thwarted by the suffocating Louisville defense in the final seconds. Benzel helped breakup a threat in the key and Jackson blocked the Lions final attempt from the top of the arch to send the game into overtime.
In the extra period, both teams played to a stalemate as neither team scored. This sent the Lady Leopards into double overtime for the first time since December 19, 1992. On that day, Louisville defeated visiting Canton McKinley 52-51 in Quintuple Overtime (5 overtimes).
After nearly 8 minutes of scoreless basketball, Lairson in-bounded and then scored on a give-and-go from Benzel with 1:26 left in the sixth period. However, the Lions Gassman broke free underneath the hoop and scored off an in-bound pass as well to knot the game at 43-all with 33 ticks left.
The Leopards came up empty on their last double overtime possession sending the game into a third overtime. After a lot of back and forth, Beaver drove to the hole and scored with 1:19 remaining to put Louisville ahead 43-41. Minerva missed on their ensuing possession and this led to a wild scramble for the rebound. Eventually, Beaver came up with it giving the Leopards possession.
With 34.6 seconds left in the third overtime, the Lions fouled Lairson and sent her to the line for a 1-and-1 opportunity. She made the most of it as she banged home both free throw attempts to put the Leopards ahead 45-41. Neither team scored on either of their next two possessions and the clock ran out.
Josie Chaddock led all Minerva scorers with 15. Gassman also dropped in 12 and Amanada Burchett scored 8 for the Lions.
Louisville has now defeated Minerva in 7 of their last 8 meetings and now leads the all-time series 39-19. This includes a 21-7 mark at home. The Lions have not won at LHS since January 26, 2011. Ironically the score of that game was also 45-41.
UP NEXT: The Lady Leopards will next travel to Carrollton to take on the Warriors on Wednesday, February 4. JV will begin at 6:00 PM and Varsity will follow around 7:30 PM.
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