The Lady Marshals are headed back to the First Region Championship game for the second straight year after Friday’s 67-51 semi-final win over McCracken County. The two teams split their regular season games but it was a convincing win over the Lady Mustangs Friday that will give them the opportunity to win a regional title since the 2013-2014 season.
They will play Graves County Saturday at 6:00, the Lady Eagles winning big over Calloway County in the second semi-final 43-25 after falling by 10 points to the Lady Lakers on Feb. 18.
“We wanted to establish a rhythm early, we wanted to take them out of what they wanted to early and I felt like we did that”, Lady Marshals Head Coach Aaron Beth said. “They had a hard time scoring there in the beginning then once we got the lead we just kind of controlled the basketball game.”
Beth added, “Making it very frustrating for them to score and not give them any easy baskets was going to get their rhythm off and once we got that lead established we could kind of control the tempo like we wanted to.”
McCracken County never led from the opening tip, the Lady Marshals jumping out to an early 6-1 lead on baskets by Halle Langhi, Presley Jezik and Cayson Conner before the Lady Mustangs got their first field goal from Abby Ellington. Langhi scored the final six points of the first quarter for a 14-7 lead.
Ellington opened the second quarter with a three and followed it up with two free throws to trim the Lady Marshals lead to 14-12. A basket by Langhi kicked off a 16-3 run for the Lady Marshals, highlighted by two threes from Jada Driver on their way to a 30-15 halftime lead.
“It was huge to get out to a quick start”, Conner said. “We just wanted to push the ball like we knew we could, score in transition and give ourselves the confidence we needed to play this game.”
They continued the first half momentum and stretched the lead out to 21 points at 38-17 before foul trouble starting creeping in for McCracken County, Destiny Thomas with three fouls and Ellington drawing her fourth near the end of the quarter. The Lady Marshals held Thomas to just one first half point and she scored five more of her 15 in the game in the third quarter. Conner finished out the quarter with a basket, drawing the foul for the three point play and a 44-27 lead.
Both teams combined for the largest point total in the fourth quarter with 47, Marshall County with the 24-23 edge, the majority coming at the free throw line with 17 on a 76 percent night from the stripe. Langhi picked up her fifth foul with 5:55 left in the game and a three from Ashton Rudy cut the Lady Marshals lead to 15.
Under three minutes to go, Mary Beavers fouled out of the game followed by Ellington with under two to go while the Lady Marshals, who were in the double-bonus made successful trips to the free throw line to extend the lead back out to 20 points before McCracken County finished out with a three from Jade Tinin and basket by Caroline Sivills cut the Lady Marshals winning margin to 16 points.
With Langhi fouling out and Driver leaving in the fourth quarter with an injury, Beth said he has players that can come in off the bench and do the job they want them to do when faced with any kind of adversity and is confident that no matter who is on the floor they are going to do a good job.
“We had a great game plan coming in”, Beth said. “The girls have done an unbelievable job this week of listening and being coach-able and executing what we wanted to get done. The score is a result of that.”
Conner earned Player of the Game honors after a 22-point night on 7-of-13 and was 8-of-11 in free throws. Langhi had 14 points, nine rebounds and was 6-of-7 at the free throw line. Thomas led McCracken County with 15 points and Ellington scored 11.
Tickets for the championship game will go be on sale Saturday morning from 9:00-10:00 am in the lower lobby of the gymnasium.
Marshall County 14 30 44 67
McCracken County 7 15 27 51
Scoring
Marshall County: Cayson Conner 22, Halle Langhi 14, Jada Driver 10, Presley Jezik 9, Layne Pea 6, Neely Northcott 4, Mia Teague 2
McCracken County: Destiny Thomas 15, Abby Ellington 11, Caroline Sivills 6, Claire Johnson 6, Ashton Rudy 6, Jade Tinin 3, Marlee Morehead 2, Sophie Williams 2,
Marshall County: FG 18/38, 3 Pt 2/9, FT 29/38, Reb 29, Ast 12, TO 15, PF 15
McCracken County: FG 17/44, 3 Pt 6/17, FT 11/20, Reb 25, Ast 12, TO 18, PF 28
