Lions Cool Chieftains, Advance in ECNC Tourney (1-30-12)
Louisville boys 76, Yutan 46

Louisville outscored Yutan 21-3 in the first quarter en route to a 76-46 victory over the Chieftains in quarter-final action of the East Central Nebraska Conference Tournament. The Lions will now face top-seeded Johnson County Central at 6:15 on Thursday at Southeast Community College.

The Lions used a strong man-to-man defensive effort to hold Yutan to 1-of-8 shooting in the first period while causing seven turnovers. Offensively, LHS continually attacked the rim for easy baskets or managed to get to the free throw line where the Lions dropped in their first six charity shots.

The second quarter was more of the same as Louisville increased their lead to 37-14 behind the play of senior Jake Snodgrass, who scored six of his 14 game points during the period.

The Chieftains were able to get the margin down to 16 points at 42-26 with 5:29 remaining in the third period after Yutan’s Nate Fisher connected on two free throws but the Lions scored eight points in the next 38 seconds on back-to-back treys by Zach Lutz and Skyler Deloske, then converted a Tucker Anderson steal into a lay-up to up the lead to 50-26.

Yutan countered with a three-point play from Fisher on their next possesion but Louisville’s Mitch Petersen answered with a 3 from the deep corner. The Chieftains never got any closer then 21 points the rest of the game as the Lions increased their lead to as many as 35 points before substitutes from both teams finished out the last four minutes of the contest.

Besides Snodgrass, three other Lions finished in double-figure scoring with Anderson scoring a game high 19, Deloske tallying 17, a personal best for the sophomore, and Peterson, who added 11 points. As a team, the Lions hit a season-best seven shots from beyond the arc and were successful on 25-of-37 free throws.

The huge LHS victory was payback for a 76-66 loss to the Chieftains 11 days ago and helped to ease the pain of a loss last Friday to Mead as the Lions move on to the ECNC semi-finals for the first time since 2008.

“Tonight we came ready to play,” said Louisville head coach Colin Lansman, who saw his team’s record improve to 8-9. “We just forgot about last week, had a good practice on Sunday and played hard tonight.”

Louisville's Tucker Anderson, in purple, and Gabe Arlt of Yutan battle for a loose ball during second half play of the LHS 76-46 victory.

Photo compliments of Krambeck Photography.
Click to view more photos
from this event....