Lexi Wasara's late basket give Louisville comeback win over Archbishop Hoban
CANFIELD, Ohio - Lexi Wasara picked the best time to score her only four points of the game for Louisville at the South Range Holiday Hoops Classic on Thursday afternoon.
With the Leopards trying to make a comeback against Archbishop Hoban, Wasara scored to tie the game at 41-41 and then just a couple minutes later, she did something even better.
With the teams tied 43-43 in the final seconds, Brooke Haren got the ball to Taylor McCully, who saw Wasara in the left corner. After receiving the pass, Wasara head faked her defender and went around her to the basket for a layup with seven seconds left that was the difference in a 45-43 win.
"I was in the corner expecting Taylor to hit a three," Wasara said. "It was exciting those last couple minutes."
While Wasara was humble about making the final shot, Haren was as excited as can be for her teammate.
"Lexi is that person she'll pass first," Haren said. "But in that moment, I was like she's got the baseline drive. She does it at practice and I couldn't be more proud of her. I knew it was going in immediately."
The head coach echoed the words of Haren.
"What a great play by her," Louisville head coach Dan Moody said. "She had the patience to do a little up fake there. She played her role so well. And she doesn't score on a whole lot. But man, did she come up there when we needed it."
Louisville (7-2) actually trailed by 11 midway through the third quarter, but finished the quarter on an 8-2 run to take momentum into the fourth.
And then with Hoban (8-1), ranked No. 8 in the SBLive Ohio girls basketball Power 25, leading 41-34, Louisville turned up the pressure defensively and executed on the offensive end.
"That's what we had to do," Moody said. "We were back in the 2-3 zone most of the first half and it wasn't working real well. So we had to create a little bit of offense (with our defense) and they got after it pretty good."
A 3-pointer by Haren brought the Leopards within four, a basket by Courtney Burwick made it a two-point game and then Wasara tied it.
A defensive stop on one end then led to a run our for Haren, who scored the last two of her game-high 20 points to give the Leopards their first lead of the game since late in the first quarter.
Hoban answered with a basket by Niera Stevens to tied the game back up at 43-43, setting up the heroics for Wasara.
Despite trailing and knowing what team was on the other bench, the Leopards were determined to play all 32 minutes, even if it meant giving the next opponent a sneak peak at some new plays.
"The girls didn't want to give up, they didn't want to quit," Moody said. "Those girls wanted it so bad. We pulled out all the stops that we had probably showed them to our next opponent. But it worked out and it is a huge win for us."
Haren, had trouble putting into words just how big this win was for Louisville, as the Leopards handed the Knights their first loss.
"(Hoban) coach (Pam) Davis has a great program," Haren said. "And we knew that coming in. The biggest thing I'm proud of is this team is we put our head down, we grinded, we grinded and grinded. I just couldn't be more proud. I'm just speechless right now."
The win Thursday afternoon was so perfect that it even brought the head coach to tears as he walked into a locker room full of screaming players.
"It was emotional for me because I've worked with these girls now for about three year," Moody said. "They worked so hard in the offseason and to see them put it in practice and come through in a clutch moment like that, it was huge. I had tears in my eyes trying to talk to them because I think it's really the biggest win of my life."
