Trailing McCracken County 53-49, Marshall County’s Brady Miller scored and drew the foul with 37.4 seconds left to cut the lead to two. Miller missed the free throw but the rebound went to the Marshals, Zion Harmon putting it back up and in to send the game into overtime after a miss at the other end by the Mustangs.
It was all McCracken County in the four minute overtime period, out-scoring Marshall County 11-0 to win 64-53 and earn their 10th straight win over the Marshals.
“We’re still a little indecisive”, Birdsong said. “I thought late we became too dependent on Zion there in the last four or five minutes. We quit cutting, we quit moving, we were indecisive…a couple of easy shots we passed up.”
The game opened with four threes – two from Kaden Driver and two from McCracken’s Cason Tilford and Ian Hart. Hart put the Mustangs up 8-6 followed by an 8-0 run by the Marshals – Quinn Smith with four points and two each by Harmon and Cole Mills – to go up 12-8 and they held a 19-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Harmon dropped in the first basket of the second quarter to give the Marshals a 10 point lead which would be their largest of the game. The Mustangs cut the lead to four points twice in the quarter at 27-23 on the first basket of the game by Noah Dumas and again at 29-25. Marshall County held at 30-25 lead at halftime.
A three-pointer by Brady Miller to start the third quarter put the Marshals up by eight but things tightened up from there. McCracken drew to within one point at 37-36 then took their first lead since 8-6 in the first quarter on free throws by Dumas. Colby Schroader put the Marshals back up by one, a three from Dumas gave the Mustangs a two point lead and a basket at the buzzer by Riley Smith tied the game up 41.
Down 51-45 in the fourth, four straight at the foul line from Harmon cut the McCracken lead down to two. Running the clock down and drawing two fouls, Ian McCune and Tilford hit one each to put the Mustangs up by four before the play of Miller and Harmon sent the game into overtime.
Birdsong said, “It’s a good rivalry…they’ve had our number.”
The game was a rematch of the 1st Region Championship game in March the Mustangs won 43-42. The Marshals last win over McCracken County came on Dec. 9, 2016
Friday, Marshall County will play a girls and boys varsity double header at home against Paducah Tilghman.
McCracken 11 14 16 12 OT/11 –64 OT
Marshall 19 11 11 12 OT/0 – 53 OT
McCracken: Hart 16, Brower 15, Dumas 13, I McCune 10, Blackwell 3, J McCune 1
Marshall: Harmon 21, Miller 9, Driver 7, Schroader 4, Sedlock 4, R. Smith 2, Mills 2
