Lady Marshals Head Coach Aaron Beth said following Tuesday’s final regular season game against Webster County that he was proud of the fact that his team showed true grit and character and battled through adversity to come away with the win.
The 49-42 win wraps up the regular season with a record of 18-5. The Lady Marshals currently rank first in the state in points allowed per game with an average of 33.0.
“Extremely happy with the effort”, Beth said. “We haven’t won a tight game really all year. The Owensboro Catholic game we showed great character being down 14 and coming back and being up one, but we lost. At Graves was a close game and we lost. The other three of the five losses were blowouts.”
Webster County freshman Hannah Yates hit four of her eight 3-pointers in the game in the first quarter to give the Lady Trojans a 12-10 lead.
Trailing 17-14 in the second quarter, Halle Langhi’s 3-pointer tied the game up and Skylar Waller’s basket put the Lady Marshals up by two. It was the start of a 9-0 run that finished out the half with a 23-17 lead.
Webster County made up the six-point deficit, outscoring the Lady Marshals 15-9 in the third quarter to tie the game at 32-32 and took a three-point lead on Yates’ sixth 3-pointer of the game to open the fourth quarter.
A three by Jada Driver tied the game up at 35 but it was followed by the seventh and eighth 3-pointers from Yates to put Webster County up by six at 41-35. A nice side hook by Langhi found the net, followed by a steal sent back to Langhi for the lay in and a 14-1 run was underway to finish out the game.
“To be down six and go on a 14-1 run in the fourth quarter…our defense did it”, Beth said.
Beth said the team is playing their best basketball right now, not anywhere close to as sharp as teams in the past have been at this point but adding, “You have to look at the experience and our youth…I mean Skylar plays extremely well and she’s a freshman. We put a lot of pressure on her to do a lot of things.”
“Halle battled inside and had some big blocks”, said Beth. “She had 21 points but her defensive presence and effort was probably as important if not more than the 21 points.”
The Lady Marshals have only given up four 2-point field goals in the last eight quarters they’ve played. Beth said it was a great way to end of the regular season to carry them into tournament play.
Post-season play begins Saturday when the Lady Marshals tip off against Murray at 1:00 in the 4th District Tournament at Calloway County High School.
Marshall 10 13 9 17 – 49
Webster 12 5 15 10 – 42
Marshall (18-5): Langhi 21, Waller 14, Driver 8, Henson 4, Teague 2
Webster (15-10): Yates 24, Price 8, Shepherd 4, Henton 3, Cates 3
