Louisville Falls At Home to Minerva 41-36 – Girls Basketball
Minerva 41, Louisville 36
The Louisville Leopards Girls Varsity Basketball Team fell to the visiting Minerva Lions 41-36 Wednesday Night at Louisville High School. With the loss, he Lady Leopards drop to 9-11 on he year.
Paige Cole and Sherilynn Mullett each scored a game-high 11 points to lead the Louisville offense. Erin Hahn also hit a pair of first quarter three-pointers and finished in double figures with 10. Hahn pulled down a team leading 4 rebounds and led the defense with 3 steals as well.
The Lady Leopards led 14-13 at the end of one and pulled ahead 21-17 with under a minute to go before halftime. The Lions scored 6 points in that final minute to take a 22-21 lead into the locker room. Elyssa Imler scored all of her game-high 11 points in the first half to lead MHS.
The 6-0 run to end the first half was part of a larger 13-2 Minerva run that put them in command 29-23 with 2:02 left in the third quarter. Two quick scores ended the third quarter with Nelle Yankovich canning a three-pointer from the left corner to give the Lions their biggest lead of the game to that point 34-27. Mullett immediately answered on the other end and seconds later the buzzer sounded ending the third quarter.
Yankovich hit another uncontested three-pointer from the left side of the arch to give Minerva 37-29 lead. That would prove to be the game-winning basket as Louisville could trim the lead to no closer than 5 points. The Leopards scratched, clawed, and created opportunity on defense. They were also aided by the Lions who missed 3 consecutive bonus free throw attempts and shot just 2 of 7 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter. But in the end, shots just didn’t fall.
Minerva held an edge in almost all statistical categories. They shot 51% (14 of 27) from the floor compared to a 35% (13 of 37) night from Louisville. The Lions out-rebounded the Leopards 19-13 and committed less turnovers by a 16-10 count. MHS was led on the glass by Coletta Miller who snagged 5 boards.
Despite the loss, Louisville has still won 7 out of the last 9 in the series with Minerva. The Leopards are now 44-21 overall which includes a 23-9 record in games played at LHS. Louisville has now dropped 2 of their last 3 home games against the Lions.
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UP NEXT: The Lady Leopards will next host the Revere Minutemen on Saturday, February 9. JV will start at Noon at Varsity will follow at around 1:30 PM.
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Varsity Statistics
LIONS 41, LEOPARDS 36
Team 1-2-3-4–TOTAL
Minerva 13-9-12-7–41
Louisville 14-7-8-7–36
LIONS: Imler 4 3-6 11, Yankovich 3 0-0 8, Kendrick 2 2-2 6, Foutz 2 1-2 5, Miller 0 4-6 4, Rhodes 2 0-2 4, Wayts 1 0-0 3. TOTAL 14 10-18 41.
3-Pointers (3): Yankovich 2, Wayts
Team FT: 10-18 55%
LEOPARDS: Cole 4 3-4 11, Mullett 3 5-8 11, Hahn 4 0-0 10, Adelman 1 0-1 2, Gibson 1 0-0 2. TOTAL 13 8-13 36.
3-Pointers (2): Hahn 2
Team FT: 8-13 62%
Fouls: 16-12 Louisville
Records: Louisville 9-11
JV: Louisville 44, Minerva 32
JV Statistics
LEOPARDS 44, LIONS 32
Team 1-2-3-4–TOTAL
Minerva 2-14-6-10–32
Louisville 10-10-15-9–44
LIONS: Cassidy 8 2-6 17, Walton 2 0-0 6, Risden 1 2-2 5, Phillips 1 0-0 2, Slentz 1 0-0 2. TOTAL 13 4-8 34.
3-Pointers (4): Walton 2, Cassidy, Risden
Team FT: 4-8 50%
LEOPARDS: Adelman 6 1-2 13, Thorne 4 0-0 8, Loy 2 0-0 6, Joseph 2 1-2 5, Ralston 1 2-2 5, Siegfried 2 0-0 4, Dyer 2 1-2 3. TOTAL 19 5-8 44.
3-Pointers (3): Loy 2, Ralston
Team FT: 5-8 63%
Fouls: 8-8
Records: Louisville 16-3
