It would take a herculean effort by the Lady Marshals to win their opening round game against McCracken County in the Mercy Health First Region Tournament and they almost pulled it off.
Marshall County led the top 10 ranked Lady Mustangs all of the first half with the exception of two ties and pushed the lead to 10 in the third quarter. McCracken County took their first lead of the game with 2:10 left in the third quarter and held off the Lady Marshals to win 54-45.
“I could not be more proud of our girls, every single one of them”, Head Coach Aaron Beth said in post-game comments. “It wasn’t just the ones that played. Everybody has been so positive at practice and done everything I’ve asked to help us get prepared. We were, but it just didn’t go our way tonight.”
In their two regular season games against McCracken County, the Lady Marshals lost by 25 and 31 points, but at the end of the first quarter on Tuesday at the CFSB Center, held an 11-6 lead. Freshman Kenzlee Terry scored the first basket of the game and led in the quarter with five points. First Region Player of the Year, Claire Johnson, scored all six of the Lady Mustangs points.
The talented youth of the Lady Marshals squad combined for all 13 second quarter points to hold a 24-20 lead at halftime. Terry drained a three-pointer, sophomore Eden Sandlin led with seven points and eighth grader Jessica Reed had three points.
Skylar Waller gave the Lady Marshals a 26-21 lead early in the third quarter. A foul on Sandlin was followed by a technical called on McCracken County Head Coach Scott Sivills. Sandlin hit both of her free throws from the foul and Waller hit one of the two technical free throws to put the Lady Marshals up 29-21.
Laken Schroader scored to give the Lady Marshals their largest lead of the game at 31-21 but McCracken County finished out the third quarter on a 19-4 run to lead 40-36. Reagan Hill scored 12 of the Lady Mustangs 20 third quarter points.
Reed cut the lead to two with her opening fourth quarter basket. Chevelle Henson, battling double and triple defenders under the goal, scored to keep the Lady Marshals within three at 43-40.
With 3:16 remaining, the Lady Marshals were within five at 47-42. McCracken County finished out the game outscoring the Lady Marshals 7-3 to earn the nine-point win and advance to the First Region semi-finals.
“There’s nothing negative to come out of this game”, Beth said. “We made some mistakes we didn’t need to make. We gave up some easy baskets. But I don’t think anybody thought it would have been that close of a game, even with three or four minutes to go it could have been a one possession game and it just didn’t happen for us tonight.”
The Lady Marshals close out their season with a record of 21-9. McCracken County will play Carlisle County, a 50-47 winner over Ballard Memorial, in Friday’s semi-finals.
Marshall 11 13 12 7 – 45
McCracken 6 14 20 14 – 54
Marshall: Eden Sandlin 14, Skylar Waller 9, Kenzlee Terry 8, Laken Schroader 7, Jessica Reed 5, Chevelle Henson 2
Marshall: FG 16/36, 3PT 5/17 (Sandlin 2, Terry 2, Waller 1), FT 8/14 (Sandlin 4/4), Reb 24
McCracken: Claire Johnson 24, Reagan Hill 14, Mikee Buchanan 8, Jayden Skaggs 3, Ava Hughes 3, Megan Swinford 2
McCracken: FG 21/46, 3PT 3/13, FT 9/15, Reb 22
Player of the Game: Reagan Hill
