The Liberty Lady Leopards held on to defeat the visiting Crestview Lady Rebels 53-46 in girls basketball action Monday night.
Demi Watson and Aaliyah Foster each poured in 17 points for the Leopards.
For the 11-9 Rebels, senior stand-out Krista Perry dropped in 15 points.
Next up for Crestview is a Wednesday contest with a trip to Brookfield.
*Contributed by YSN’s Gary Leininger
BERLIN CENTER OH- In their last non conference game of the season Western Reserve cranked it up a notch bringing division 1 Louisville to town. After jumping out to a 16-4 lead in the first quarter, the Devils has to scrap together all their effort to keep the Leopards from coming back in the game. Reserve hung on with a 45-42 win.
Louisville nearly made a dramatic last second comeback, Aubrey Thorne came off the bench and nailed a three from the corner to cut it to 45-42 with 16 seconds left. On the other end, the Leopards got the quick defensive rebound, and they had the last shot of the game, but it wouldn’t fall.
Dani Vuletich led the Blue Devils with 19 points. All of her points came in the first half. Kennedy Miller took advantage of the Leopards defense focusing on Vuletich, and scored 12 points in the second half. Miller finished with 16.
Louisville was paced by Sherilynn Mullett who finished with 11. Paige Cole was also in double figures with 10.
Western Reserve looks ahead to two games against Waterloo in two days as they’ll host the Vikings on Wednesday, and travel there on Thursday. Louisville will now get ready for tournament play as they’ll host Boardman on Saturday at 1:00.
HUBBARD, Ohio –
Trailing by 15 at the start of the 4th quarter, the Hubbard Eagles (4-7) had quite the mountain to climb in an old TAC-8 rivalry renewed against the Liberty Leopards (6-7).
The Eagles came out strong to start the 4th, but really made their run with around 4 minutes left in the game. After slowly chipping away at the Liberty lead, the Eagles instituted a full court press. The chaos of the Eagle defense proved to be too much for the Leopards to handle as they watched their lead dwindle to just 2.
After a steal at half court by Hubbard senior guard Anthony Gagliardi, it looked as if the Eagles were about to finally draw the game even, but Gagliardi would miss the open layup. Off of the missed layup, Hubbard would send Liberty’s Jameer Weaver to the line for a one and one opportunity, in which Weaver would connect on both and extend the Liberty lead to 4 with under 2 minutes remaining.
Following sloppy play from both teams, it was Hubbard’s Ryan Laird who brought the game back to within one score after knocking 2 free throws down. Then, following a layup from Liberty’s O’marion Dawson and two free throws from Hubbard’s Paul Sundy, the Leopards had the ball and a chance to possibly put the game on ice.
Liberty would fail to convert and gave Hubbard the ball back with under thirty seconds to go. When a timeout was called both teams headed towards their bench, senior forward Andrew Frank noticed that the spot was going to be underneath the basket.
“Once we saw that the ball was on the baseline, all of us looked at each other and agreed that was the play that was going to work”. That play of course, was an inbounds pass to Frank in the corner who would fake a handoff to a fellow Eagle then had a wide open lane to the hoop, where he’d take just two dribbles before rising up and slamming one home to tie the game at 51 all. “I can’t even describe it,” Frank said. “My adrenaline was rushing I couldn’t even think. That moment and that game was probably the best thing I’ve ever been a part of.”
After holding out on one more Liberty possession, the game was sent into overtime, where the Eagles would come out victorious, 61-57.
LEADING SCORERS:
Hubbard
Andrew Frank – 11 points
Ryan Laird – 11 points
Anthony Gagliardi – 10 points
Liberty
Jameer Weaver – 12 points
Rushad Chambers – 11 points
O’marion Dawson – 10 points
UP NEXT:
Hubbard – Looking to win back-to-back games for the first time this season, the Eagles will travel to Niles to take on the Red Dragons (1-8). These two teams faced off earlier in the season in a thriller that came down to the last shot with Niles coming out on top, 49-47.
Liberty – Coming off their heartbreaking loss, the Leopards must turn their attention to Crestview (8-9) Tuesday the 9th. Liberty won the first matchup 48-34.
*Contributed By YSN’s Jamie Thomson
LIBERTY OH- It’s been over a week and a half since Poland has been able to be on the court. Wednesday night against Liberty, you could tell the rust had gathered. The Bulldogs did not start off the way they wanted to, but once they put it in gear they ran away with a 58-41 win.
The Leopards jumped out a 25-11 lead. Then, stretching from the second quarter to the third, the Bulldogs scored the next 26 points to go 37-25.
Liberty wasn’t out of gas yet though, they scratched and clawed the game back to a 41-35 Poland lead. But eventually the Bulldogs would impose their will and end the game on a 17-6 run.
Jackie Grisdale fought her way to a 25 point night. She did not hit a three, and went 9/10 from the free throw line. It was a physical game. The Bulldogs went to the line 29 times, and hit 20 shots. Connie Cougras added 9 points off the bench for Poland.
Liberty was down a few players but still put together a strong night. They were led by Aaliyah Foster with 18 points. Demi Watson also got in to double figures with 11.
Poland now focuses on a match up at home against South Range on Thursday. Both teams are undefeated in the NE8. Liberty also plays 2 games in 2 days as they’ll travel to LaBrae on Thursday.
The host Poland Bulldogs defeated the Liberty Leopards by 15 points in a 59-44 victory.
Down by 5 after the 1st period the Bulldogs out-scored the Leopards 22-10 in the 2nd quarter to take a 32-25 half-time advantage.
Andrew Centofanti and Brody Todd each dropped in 12 points to pace Poland.
Liberty’s James Weaver had 14 points for the Leopards.
Poland returns to action Tuesday as they travel to Hubbard, Liberty will return home to host Campbell on Tuesday.
*Contributed by YSN’s Gary Leininger
WARREN OH- Champion has had a tremendous week bouncing back from adversity. Seeing a losing streak reach five last week with a heartbreaking loss to Crestview, the team seemed to be at their lowest. A week later, the Flashes have now gotten their record back to .500 with a 68-61 win over Liberty.
Austin Willforth and Trayvon Edwards both had impressive showings for the Flashes as they both led the team with 20 points.
James Davis led the Leopards with 20 points, while Jameer Weaver also cracked double figures scoring 16.
Champion returns to action Friday as they host Brookfield. Liberty stays in the league on Tuesday as they host Campbell.
WARREN OH- The host Champion Flashes held a slim 2 point advantage at the half but pulled away in the final two periods
The Flashes Brooke Whitt had a huge night dropping in 23 points followed up by Emma Gumont with 16 points and Linda Dodrill hit 5 3-pointers to score 15 points to pull away from the Liberty Leopards 67-55 in Thursday’s action.
Cianna Smith paced the Leopards with 16 points and Aaliyah Foster added 14 points.
LIBERTY OH- Newton Falls got a big win inside the MVAC on Monday night by winning a close game with Liberty 52-48. The win avenges a twenty point loss to the Leopards that opened the season for the Tigers.
Breanna Hutson led the way for Newton Falls with 16 points on the night. Madison Haidet was also in double figures with 13 points, she was joined with 13 points by Jalynn Nicholas.
Cianna Smith was in front of the Leopards scoring with 16 points. Aaliyah Foster has a productive night as well scoring 12 points for Liberty.
Newton Falls stays in the league Thursday as they square off with Brookfield.
BEAVER OH- In a match-up between division 2 state wrestling powerhouses the Louisville Leopards outscored the Beaver Local Beavers 53-20 in Wednesday night action.
The Leopards improved to 8-2 for the season while Beaver Local dropped just their 2nd match of the season moving them to 17-2.
Recording pins for Louisille were Dylan Rhodes 106lbs, Daniel Adams 120lbs, Garett Lautzenheiser 126lbs, Brenden Severs 195lbs, Noah Peterson 220lbs and Ben Brendle 285lbs. For the Beavers Devon Salsberry 145lbs and Jonathan Potts at 170lbs both had pins.
*Contributed by YSN’s Gary Leininger
CANFIELD OH- The Canfield Cardinals evened their season record up to 6-6 with a 20 point win over the Louisville Leopards 50-30.
Sharp shooter Abby Muckleroy canned 5 from the 3-point arc to lead the Cards with 17 points. Alyssa Dill chipped in 15 points and Kate Sahli added 10 points for Canfield.
*contributed by YSN’s Gary Leininger