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Louisville keeps NBC lead in Salem

SALEM–The Salem boys basketball team made things interesting at a couple of points in Friday’s battle with conference-leading Louisville, but ultimately the Quakers were undone by too many crucial turnovers in a 73-53 loss Friday at Cabas Gymnasium.

Salem falls to 7-9 overall and 3-7 in the Northeastern Buckeye Conference. Louisville improves to 11-5, 8-2 and remains one game ahead of both Marlington and West Branch. Minerva, which entered the night tied for second, lost to Canton South to fall two games off the pace.

“I don’t think we backed down from them all night, we played hard,” Salem coach Rich Hart said. “Unfortunately, we had way too many empty possessions that ended with turnovers. You can’t give a good team like Louisville those extra chances.”

The Quakers turned the ball over six times in the first quarter and shot 3 for 14 in the opening frame as they found themselves in a 20-8 hole.

However, the Salem defense dug in during the second quarter and allowed the Quakers to scrape back into the game. A Mitch Davidson steal followed by an “and-1” narrowed the gap to 25-20. On the following possession, Turner Johnson converted a layup off of a Braydon Gibson steal, giving the Quaker fans good reason to get excited.

Johnson came up with Salem’s third straight steal on the next possession, but the Quakers couldn’t finish off a 3-on-2 opportunity and turned the ball over. The Leopards promptly ripped off five points in the final minute before halftime to go into the locker room up 30-23.

“That was a big swing,” Hart said. “I thought Turner gave us a huge spark off the bench tonight. We battled hard, but just couldn’t take care of the ball well enough.”

“In the grand scheme of things, that little run we had before the break might not seem like a big deal, but it was because the momentum was shifting big-time,” Louisville coach Tom Siegfried said.

The second major turning point happened early in the fourth quarter. The Quakers had cut a 17-point margin to 10 when they committed another costly turnover and Brandon Whal drew what appeared to be a questionable shooting foul at the other end.

Salem also drew a technical on the play and Whal (who is a 91 percent free throw shooter) sank all four free throws. He made two more when he was fouled again on the next possession. In less than 30 seconds, the lead ballooned to 57-41 and the Leopards were never threatened again.

“That turned the momentum, there’s no doubt about that,” Hart said.

Whal knocked down a game-high six threes and led all scorers with 32 points. Derek Zeller compiled 15 points and five rebounds, while Cam King had nine points.

“We lost Chris Libertore (the school’s all-time leading scorer) from last season, and I was wondering who was going to pick up the slack,” Siegfried said. “It’s been a collective effort. Anybody on our team is capable of stepping up.”

Outside of a big effort from Mitch Davidson, who had 30 points and seven rebounds, the Quakers found other sources of offense hard to come by. They were further hindered by the fact that forward Chase Ackerman spent most of the game in foul trouble, before eventually fouling out in the fourth quarter.

“Besides the turnovers, the biggest thing for us is finding consistent scoring from some other people,” Hart said. “Mitch had a heck of a night, but we need some more help.”

The Quakers will get another chance to play spoiler when they host Minerva Tuesday, while the Leopards have a huge game at home against Marlington.

Louisville’s conference slate has been heavily back-loaded with big games this season. In addition to Tuesday’s showdown with the Dukes, the Leopards still must play West Branch twice and Minerva once.

“At the beginning of the season, I thought four losses might win the title,” Siegfried said. “There are a lot of challenging teams in the league, with Salem being one of them. Our guys have been resilient all season and have done a great job of not getting ahead of themselves.”

Game notes

¯ The Leopards also enjoyed a sizable advantage from the free throw line, where they went 19-for-20 compared to 12-for-26 for Salem.

“That part of the game sometimes gets overlooked, but we did what we had to do from the line tonight and that was a big factor for us,” Siegfried said.

¯ Alexandria Ripley was crowned Salem’s winder homecoming queen at halftime.

¯ Louisville won the jayvee game 56-44. Niko Walter led the Quakers with 13 points.

LOUISVILLE: 20-10-19-24–73

SALEM: 8-15-16-14–53

LOUISVILLE SCORING: Travis Jones 0-0-0, Davis Burick 1-0-2, Scott Gronow 0-0-0, Max Hartline 0-1-1, Brandon Wahl 9-8-32, Jimmy Wright 0-0-0, Derek Zeller 6-2-15, Ryan Pukys 0-0-0, Bryce Zuppe 0-2-2, Cam King 2-4-9, Colton Jones 0-2-2, Spencer Hall 4-0-8, Corey Noble 0-0-0. TEAM TOTALS: 23-48, 19-20: 73.

SALEM SCORING: Cade Campolito 1-0-2, Josh Young 0-0-0, Jarrod Cannon 0-0-0, Niko Walters 0-1-1, Seth Shivers 1-2-5, Turner Johnson 2-0-4, Braydon Gibson 1-0-2, Zach Bezon 3-0-7, Mitch Davidson 9-10-30, Bryce Owen 0-0-0, Josh Lehwald 1-0-2, Chase Ackerman 0-0-0, Jaren Snyder 0-0-0, Trey Double 0-0-0. TEAM TOTALS: 18-52, 12-26: 73.

Three-point goals: Louisville 8-22 (Wahl 6, Zeller, King), Salem 4-20 (Davidson 2, Bezon, Shivers).

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