Louisville boys basketball holds off Canton McKinley for win in front of electric crowd

Louisville junior Brayden Gross scored a career-high 29 points in the win

LOUISVILLE, Ohio - Louisville and Canton McKinley played a boys basketball game on Friday night in a packed gym that felt more like a district or regional final than it did a non-conference regular season game, with Louisville coming away with a 71-67 victory.

Louisville (15-2) trailed after the first quarter, but an 11-3 run in the second quarter gave the Leopards a lead they would never relinquish despite the best effort McKinley could muster.

McKinley (11-5) had a chance to take the lead midway through third quarter as Anthony Chavers was out in front of everyone with the ball but his dunk attempt missed and it ended up as a transition basket for Louisville's Brayden Gross on the other end to push the lead out to 41-38 with 3:30 left in the quarter.

Reed Sims, Jr., who led McKinley with 22 points, answered with a 15-foot jumper, but Louisville went on a 10-4 run to end the quarter and begin the final period with a 49-44 lead.

Louisville was without its starting point guard for the majority of the third quarter after Beau Siegfried picked up his third foul. But because the Leopards were able to maintain a lead, they could afford to keep Siegfried on the bench until the fourth quarter. 

A major reason for that was the duo of Gross and Hayden Nigro, who combined for 12 of the Leopards' 19 points in the quarter.

"It’s tough in multiple ways, because obviously it's my son, and I know what he brings to the table," Louisville head coach Tom Siegfried said. "But at the same time, I thought Hayden showed his senior leadership. We got into an offense that really focuses on Hayden getting to the rim and Brayden who gets great matchups, and so we were able to get downhill, and get enough stops to buy time."

While they were getting those stops, their point guard was their biggest cheerleader.

"I was getting some defense chants going," Beau Siegfried said with a laugh.

But when the 6-foot guard was able to get back on the floor, he made his impact felt, as he drove left for a layup and then knocked down a 3-pointer on the next possession to give Louisville a 58-49 lead early in the fourth quarter. He then hit another 3-pointer with under four minutes left after McKinley had scored four straight.

Siegfried scored 10 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter.

"I knew my time was going to come and shots were going to fall," Beau Siegfried said. "I think I definitely needed to hit some threes and help my teammates out a little bit, get us a little gap in the fourth quarter and I think that helped us."

Louisville head coach Tom Siegfried talks to his team during a timeout in a win over Canton McKinley on February 2, 2024.  / Ryan Isley, SBLive Sports

 The Leopards needed that gap, as the Bulldogs simply would not go away. Even trailing by eight with just over a minute left, McKinley kept coming. 

A layup and a free throw by Je'Cis Moody cut the lead to five with 1:05 left. And then after Louisville hit three out of four free throw attempts, Davey Thompson knocked down a 3-pointer to cut the lead back to five.

A free throw by Tate Aljancic pushed the Louisville lead back to four, but Moody raised up and knocked down a 3-pointer to give him 19 points and pull the Bulldogs within three with just 5.4 seconds remaining. But Gross stepped the the free throw line and knocked down the first of two attempts to give Louisville a 71-67 lead with 4.5 seconds left tho secure the win.

"Obviously as you can see at the end, (McKinley) does not quit," coach Siegfried said. "Everybody talking to me leading up (to the game) said the same thing and I saw it on film. They don't quit and that's a credit to coach (Sean Weatherspoon). You get guys playing that hard with that type of talent, I know I wouldn't want to match up with them in the tournament. I feel like we play hard and they matched it."

Gross led the Leopards with a career-high 29 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Nigro scored 15.

"(Brayden Gross had some) humongous boards for us, he's just a dog down there in the paint, he's a monster down there," Beau Siegfried said. "Those two are the spark of our team." 

It was a tough test for the Leopards, as they were without Avery Andrecjik (illness) and Ashton Marshall was in a gym for the first time all week after battling illness himself. But other players stepped up to help Louisville.

"This was probably the most complete game with starters and bench that we played all year," coach Siegfried said. "Obviously we were put behind the eight ball a little bit with Ashton Marshall sick all week and he gutted it out for us. Kolton Loy got his first start and I thought he did a great job in his minutes, I thought Ashton a good job of kind of doing what he could do. I thought everybody had a great role. Austin Wade, I thought coming off the bench gave us big minutes out there and maybe not scoring but defending and making the right play."

The Louisville head coach might not want to see McKinley in a win-or-go-home scenario, but he wouldn't mind playing this game again in the regular season.

"I wish we could run it back next Friday to be quite honest," coach Siegfried said. "It's just a great environment for kids. They don't know it now, but they'll remember this the rest of our lives."

-- Ryan Isley | ryan@scorebooklive.com | @sbliveoh