Leps Get Duked at Home 77-70
Marlington 77, Louisville 70
The Louisville Leopards surrendered 31 points to the Marlington Dukes in the fourth quarter, in rout to a crushing 77-70 home loss Friday Night. Owen Gramoy poured in 26 and Toby Minster dropped in 16 for Louisville in the loss, while Craig Knisley scored 23 of his game-high 27 points in the second half to lead the Dukes to victory.
Minster came out of the gate flying in the first quarter as he scored the Leopards first seven points. But, the Leps turnovers and mistakes on the defensive end kept the Dukes close. Marlington looked to have gained momentum when Lucas Strouble jammed home a dunk to tie the game at 14, but Mitch Sluss immediately returned the favor by burying home an NBA range three to put Louisville up 17-14 at the end of one.
The Dukes started the second quarter with an 8-0 run, which was started on the defensive end with a huge block from Strouble. Later in the period, Josh Draper also got a huge block for the Dukes, which was borderline goaltending but no call was made. The Leopards finished the quarter strong with Minster and Gramoy combining for 13 points in the period. Louisville went into the break up 33-31.
The third quarter was fundamentally horrible for both teams as horrific passes, missed layups, and stupid fouls made up the period’s agenda. Yet despite all that, Louisville still managed to head into the fourth quarter with a 9 point lead for one main reason. That reason was Owen Gramoy. He got hot in the third quarter and hit home 4 of his 6 made three-pointers on the night. Marlington looked to capture the momentum at the close of the period when Alden Hill rejected Mike Kelly in the lane with 1.5 left in the period. But Gramoy floated a pass to Minster who caught and banked it home to give Louisville the 55-46 lead as the buzzer sounded.
That’s when the disaster began. The Leopards couldn’t complete a pass to anyone wearing white. Marlington hustled to steal passes, hit the three-ball, and took it to the Leopards. The Dukes’ Knisely hit a three-ball with 4:05 remaining to put the Dukes up 61-60. Louisville battled back with a three-pointer by Billy Lairson to give them a 65-63 advantage. But, the rain was relentless on the orange and black side of the court. Jesse Carpenter hit a three-pointer in the corner to put Marlington back up by the smallest of margins.
The Dukes defense frustrated Louisville by forcing wretched shots and awful passes. Nothing went the Leopards way. Gramoy missed a tough reverse layup, Sluss air-balled a three, and even when Minster looked to have saved a ball from going out of bounds, his save pin-balled off the backside of the backboard. On the other end, everything went right for the Dukes. They canned 15 of 16 free throws in the quarter and scored 11 points in the final 1:20. It was a frustrating loss for the Leopards and the Marlington fans loved every minute of it. But there wasn’t a single soul cheering for either side that left Louisville High School Friday night not at least wondering or even hoping for round three…
PICTURES:
– Photos Take By and Courtesy of Lisa Gramoy
STATISTICS:
LEOPARDS: Gramoy 8 4-5 26, Minster 7 2-4 16, Sluss 2 5-9 10, Lairson 3 1-2 8, Kelly 2 0-0 6, Schooley 2 0-0 4, TOTALS 24 7-15 70.
3PT (10): Gramoy (6), Kelly (2), Lairson (1), Sluss (1)
TEAM FT: 7-15 47%
DUKES: Knisley 10 7-10 27, McDonald 6 2-2 16, Draper 6 1-1 14, Carpenter 1 6-6 9, Strouble 2 0-2 4, Williamson 1 2-2 4, Hill 1 1-3 3, TOTALS 27 19-26 77.
3PT (4): McDonald (2), Carpenter (1), Draper (1)
TEAM FT: 19-26 73%
NEXT GAME: The Leopards host the North Canton Hoover Vikigns on Tuesday, February 15. JV will tip-off at 6:00 PM, while Varsity will follow starting at approximately 7:30 PM.
JV REPORT:
Louisville 51, Marlington 42
The JV Boys Basketball team improved to 15-1 on the season with a 51-42 win over the Marlington Dukes. It was the Trevor show on the court for the Leps as Trevor Hostetler led Louisville with 12 points and Trevor Meredith poured in 10 points. Louisville led by a single field goal after each of the first three quarters and it remained a tight game midway through the fourth. Louisville held possession with a 44-42 lead and Marlington elected to let them stall. About two minutes ran off the clock as Jake O’brien held the ball near the mid-court stripe. However, Marlington’s defensive strategy did not work in the final 1:30 of the game as Louisville delivered a 7-0 run, mainly from nailing 11 of 12 free throws in the final period. Despite the loss, Marlington had 3 players in double figures: Quin Markins (14), Sean Kirk (13), and Thomas Mason (11).
