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Louden points O'Hara in winning direction

Andrew Louden's 24 points help spark victory over Bonner-Prendergast.

ANDREW Louden comes from a long line of point guards, so when the Cardinal O'Hara sophomore was thrust into that role after academic attrition subtracted the Lions roster by one in January, he was ready.

Yesterday, Louden scored 24 points in the Lions' 58-51 conquest of host Bonner-Prendergast in a battle of struggling Catholic League teams.

Louden is the younger brother of Mike, an O'Hara grad who is now a freshman point guard playing at Philadelphia University. The Louden family patriarch, Mike Sr., was the original Lion-turned-Ram.

He was a standout point man at O'Hara before a Hall of Fame career (inducted 2007) at Philly U under legendary coach Herb Magee.

So, who gets the best of the shooting matchups at the family's Glenside home?

"Probably my dad," Andrew Louden said after the game. "He does some crazy shots in the driveway, but we're not far behind."

Louden's shooting stroke was on display yesterday. He finished 7-for-15 from the field and 3-for-9 from three. However, he helped his team most by hitting six of six freebies in the final frame,

In fact, the Lions (6-15, 2-10) shot a perfect 16-for-16 from the line in the final 8 minutes and 23 of 25 for the game. The precision in singles helped offset an unusual foul-plagued day from 6-5 center Mark Plousis.

Plousis (four points, five rebounds) was ticketed for his fifth foul with 3:18 left in the game, which forced Louden and Co. to carry the load with O'Hara ahead slightly, 44-42.

"I was the point guard," Louden said, "but we had another guard, Tip Swartz. He stepped up as well. He's a junior and he was a leader on the team all year, so he did well for us, also. He hit foul shots at the end of the game and he came up big, too."

Swartz, a 6-3 forward, finished with 12 points, all in the second half, and was also spotless (6-for-6) from the line.

For the Friars (2-19, 0-12), junior forward Tyler Higgins contributed 15 off the bench in the second half to go with seven boards overall. Junior point guard Danny Ings added 13 points.

Despite heavy loss totals, Louden, who started last season as a freshman, still gleaned knowledge of self this season.

"I feel like I learned how to control pressure a lot better," he said. "Last year as a freshman I got limited minutes, but I was mainly just out there to shoot the ball. My role got a little bigger and changed from last year so I was able to handle the pressure as the season went on."

Stay tuned to see if that cool carries over to the next family H-O-R-S-E shootout.