MURRAY – It’s all about winning and advancing and that’s what the Lady Marshals (20-2) accomplished in Saturday’s 64-26 opening round 1st Region Tournament win over Paducah Tilghman (8-11). They will meet Graves County in the semi-finals on March 25th at 5:30. Graves County (19-3) beat Hickman County 50-28 to advance.
“To get 20 wins this year, it’s a little more special than other years”, Coach Aaron Beth said in his WCBL post-game radio comments. “We’re 20-2 now and didn’t even know if the season would happen. For them to come out and play the way they’ve played and to get to the 20-win mark…it’s been a great year so far and I just feel like we’re ready to go ahead and finish it off with playing well.”
Right from the start, it was obvious that they were indeed playing well. Jada Driver dropped in two straight 3-pointers to open the game and the lead grew to 18-0 before Paducah Tilghman’s Diamond Gray put the Lady Tornados on the board at the halfway point of the first quarter. The Lady Marshals finished out the quarter out-scoring Tilghman 11-4 to lead 29-6.
They put up 18 points in the second quarter while holding Tilghman to seven for a 47-13 halftime lead. Driver led with 11 first half points, Halle Langhi had 10, Cayson Conner eight, Sophie Galloway seven, five each from Layne Pea and Presley Jezik and one from Maddie Darnall.
Langhi scored half of the Lady Marshals 12 third quarter points, finishing off the 59-22 lead with a basket under the goal on a nice assist from Conner. With a running clock in place most of the second half, they put up five more points in the fourth quarter to win by 38.
Langhi led with 18 points and eight rebounds. Driver finished in double figures with 13 points and Conner scored 12. Tilghman was led by Dasia Garland with eight.
Coach Beth said his players are very unselfish, have unbelievably good chemistry and he’s proud of how the year has gone so far – especially coming out and playing so well in Saturday’s win that sets the tone for the rest of the tournament.
“We’ve got a lot of things that we left unfinished last year, not because of us but because of COVID”, Beth said. “I know that they’re hungry to get back to Rupp Arena and if we come out and take care of business and play the way we play…I like our chances.”
Tilghman 6 7 9 4 – 26
Marshall 29 18 12 5 – 64
Tilghman: Garland 8, Gray 6, Biggers 6, Jackson 6
Tilghman (8-11): FG 11/30, 3 Pt 3/7, FT 2/2, Reb 14
Marshall: Langhi 18, Driver 13, Conner 12, Galloway 9, Pea 5, Jezik 5, Darnall 1, Northcott 1
Marshall (20-2): FG 25/41, 3 Pt 5/12 (Driver 3/3), FT 9/14 (Conner 4/5), Reb 24 (Langhi 8)
Photo Gallery (click on photos to view larger image)
