Knights senior RJ Greer scored 15 points, junior Naceive Fenton, Jr. had 11 and senior Charlie Uhl added 10 as Alter fell to 9-5 overall.
“The change in momentum after an offensive rebound just killed us,” said Alter coach Eric Coulter. “Our guys thought they did enough to win the game. I felt like they did enough to win the game but because of an offensive rebound, guy on his heels throws it up, it hits the backboard and it goes in. We need to recover after that, we never recovered and that’s my job to put those guys in the right frame of mind after something like that happens. The right frame of mind was not there and that’s my job to do that, to say, ‘There’s nothing we can do about that, let’s move on.’ I think it affected us no question. We seemed rattled and our shot selection wasn’t great in the overtime. (Louisville) did a great job. They really did. It was a momentum shift and we couldn’t get it back.”
Senior post Brayden Gross, a Walsh commit, led Louisville with 21 points. Senior guard Beau Siegfried, an Ashland commit, had 20 points and Ajancic had 11 as Louisville, a Division III school located near Canton, improved to 9-4 overall.
The back-and-forth game saw 16 lead changes and nine ties throughout regulation. Louisville took a 28-27 lead on a 3-pointer by Siegfried with about a minute remaining in the first half, but a 3-pointer by Greer gave the Knights a 30-28 halftime lead.
A bucket by Gross and a 3-pointer by Siegfried gave the Leopards a 50-46 lead in the fourth quarter, forcing an Alter timeout with about 5:30 remaining.
They cut the lead to one point with 3:45 remaining when Greer saved a ball from going out-of-bounds and found Fenton for a 3-pointer. Alter reclaimed the lead at 51-50 on another basket by Greer with about 2:30 to go in regulation.
The Leopards retook the lead at 54-51 on a 3-pointer by Ajancic and a free throw by Gross.
Greer would score five straight points, hitting a 3-pointer with 1:45 to go and a driving layup with 40 seconds remaining to give Alter a two-point lead.
“He’s a great player and great players make great plays,” Coulter said.
The Leopards were able to hold the ball for a last shot. Siegfried attempted a 3-pointer from the corner that ricocheted off the hoop, fell briefly into the hands of senior Devin Bailey and was tipped to Ajancic, who hit a fadeaway putback as time expired to send it to overtime.
Gross and Siegfried each hit layups to start the overtime period, giving the Leopards the lead for good.
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