LEOPARDS CHASE DOWN URSULINE
By Matt Maher
YOUNGSTOWN, OH – Ursuline welcomed in Louisville for some afternoon hoops where the Leopards pounced on top of the Irish for an impressive 73-42 victory. The Leopards saw an impressive outing from Brook Haren while Ursuline saw scoring from 8 different sources.
The first quarter was slow for both teams with Louisville leading 12-7 after the first 8 minutes. Louisville’s Haren would only score 2 points this quarter but rebounded and passed very well which foreshadowed her play later on. Ursuline saw Julie Lee hit a 3 and both Lily Scott and Meredith Gray scored 2 points.
Ursuline continued with consistent play from the first while Louisville lit up the court with a 22-9 second. The Leopards saw Haren score 16 points this quarter with four made 2’s, two 3’s and a perfect 2-for-2 from the line, mix that with her already impressive rebounds and long passes (and the other 2 points from the 1st) and you have a red hot player who scored 18 first quarter points and was a nightmare for the home team. Ursuline saw Scott go 2-for-2 from the line while Brooke O’Palick and Carly Casey both joined in on the scoring with 2 points each.
Ursuline saw a much better offensive effort coming out of the break with 15 points, the problem was that Louisville didn’t back off and they found 19 more points. Haren found 5 more points while Courtney Barwick scored 6 in the paint and Taylor McCully found 8 including an and-1. Ursuline saw O’Palick improve with 5 more points and Gray scored 4 more points as well to help add to her team leading total.
The Irish couldn’t keep up with the Leopards in the end with Louisville continuing to outscore them 20-11. Haren found 4 more points and finished with 27 points on the day, leading all scorers by a ton. Ursuline saw Kennedy Carpenter score 4 points with 2 in the paint and 2 from the line, finishing 4-for-4 for the night. Meredith Gray added 2 more points and finished with her team leading 10 points.
With a dominant and confident start and a steady stream of baskets, Louisville came to Ursuline and showed they were a force to be reckoned with and pulled away with a surprising blowout victory. Louisville (13-4) will be back home to take on Marlington on January 27th at 2:30PM while Ursuline (8-8) are back at home on January 24th for a big Steel Valley matchup vs the Chaney Cowgirls at 7:00PM.
