Marlington Dukes at Louisville Leopards Girls Basketball 2011 Video Highlights
Louisville 51, Marlington 38
The Lady Leopards (10-0, 6-0) rode a 13-2 fourth quarter run in rout to a 51-38 demolition of the Marlington Lady Dukes (8-3, 4-1) Wednesday night at Louisville High School. Alyssa Jones poured in a team-high 14 points and Mackenzie Storlie dropped in 10 to lead the Lady Leps.
At the beginning of the first quarter both teams remained patient and executed for easy scores, but by the end of the quarter it was a track meet. With the score tied at 4-4, Jones received a pass, stepped back behind the arch, and buried the trey. On the other end, Brianna Libertore denied Marlington’s Sierra Gallina shot attempt before Jones grabbed it for the Leopards possession. A Jones put-back, and buckets by Angela Risaliti and Clara Lemmon kept the Leopards ahead 13-10 at the end of one quarter.
The Lady Leps countered Marlington’s highest scoring quarter by dominating offensively in the paint. Molly Brown laid in three baskets to counter a pair of Dukes three-pointers by Ronn’yeil Hogan and Lydia Moss, whose shot hit home from another area code. Slowly, but surely the Lady Leps built a nine-point advantage, but just before halftime a circus play occurred. Marlington’s Katie Reed stole a Louisville pass and threw up a half court shot not knowing how much time remained. The ball pinballed off the backboard and into the hands of the her teammate Malea Staffel, who laid it in just as the backboard glowed orange. Staffel finished with 10 points on the evening, while Reed led the team with 12. The Dukes went into the half down 29-22.
Despite being down seven, the Dukes went back to their original game plan and slowed the pace of the game down, consequently cutting the Leps lead to 29-24. But, a beautiful feed from Storlie to Libertore for an easy lay-in snapped a five and a half minute scoring drought from the field. The Leopards opened up a 34-26 lead, before the Lady Dukes roared back with two straight buckets to cut the deficit to four just after the start of the fourth quarter.
Louisville was not about to wave the white flag though. They answered right back with a Lauren Bricker “stop and pop” (as the announcer called it) to reestablish a six-point advantage. Bricker followed that up by grabbing a loose ball and tossing it to Jones. Jones went coast-to-coast before feeding it over to Storlie who popped a 12-footer from the right corner. The Dukes would not go away though, as they took advantage of Louisville’s failed bonus opportunities at the charity stride. Louisville missed eight free throws on the night, many of which stemmed a 6-0 run by Marlington to get them within a bucket of Louisville.
But, the Lady Leps were resilient and put together a 13-2 run to finish the Dukes off. Libertore hit a layup and was fouled. She then nailed the “And 1” free throw, before blocking a shot on the other end. Brown grabbed the ball off the deflection and drove to the other end where she found Jones for two more to put the Leps up 46-38. Louisville continued to hold the Dukes off the scoreboard on defense, while hitting a few more free throws on offense to clinch the double digit victory.
Box Score
LEOPARDS: Jones 4 5-8 14, Storlie 3 4-7 10, Libertore 4 1-3 9, Brown 3 0-0 6, C. Lemmon 3 0-0 6, Risaliti 1 2-2 4, Bricker 1 0-0 2 TOTAL 18 12-20 51
3PT(1): Jones
TEAM FT: 12-20 60%
DUKES: Reed 5 2-2 12, Staffel 5 0-0 10, Hogan 4 0-0 9, Gorman 0 4-4 4, Moss 1 0-0 3 TOTAL 13 6-6 38
3PT (2): Hogan, Moss
TEAM FT: 6-6 100%
NEXT GAME: The Lady Leps next travel to Canton South to play the Wildcats on Saturday, January 8. JV will tip off at 1:00, while Varsity will start at approx. 2:30.
Pictures:
– Taken by Natalie Scarnecchia
JV REPORT: Louisville 47, Marlington 14
Louisville dominated the entire game and won convincingly 47-14. Jordan Monnot led Louisville with 11 points, while Mackenzie Rankin and Nora Hmeidan each scored 8. The Lady Leps defense got better and better by each quarter. They gave up 8 in the first, 4 in the second, 2 in the third, and shutout the Lady Dukes in the fourth. Madison Bitzel led the Lady Dukes with 9 and Amber Minster also dropped in 7 for the Lady Leps who improve to 9-1 on the year.
