Marshall County and Murray played the first game of their Fourth District schedule on Tuesday at Reed Conder Gymnasium. The last meeting between the two teams was an overtime thriller in the district title game last season that the Marshals won 62-59.
The Marshals beat the Tigers 73-47 on Tuesday but it was a tale of two halves after Murray took the lead late in the first quarter and held a slight advantage until halftime when the Marshals pulled ahead by two. The Marshals went on to wear them down in the second half with their quick transition play, outscoring the Tigers 45-21 to remain undefeated at 7-0.
Murray couldn’t seem to miss from three-point range, especially in the first half when eight of their nine made field goals came from behind the arc. The Marshals went to the free throw line 32 times in the contest and only missed four. Half came from Matthew Langhi who was 15-of-16 after relentlessly driving to the rim against the Tigers.
The Marshals held an early 4-0 lead but the Tigers knotted it up at 8-8 on a three by Maddox Mitchell, his first of six in the game. Murray took their first lead at 11-10 and finished out the quarter on two straight threes from Harris Moore to go up 17-12.
Langhi scored all six of his second quarter points from the free throw line and the first two trimmed the Murray lead to 17-14. Marshall went on to out-score Murray 16-9 in the quarter to take a 28-26 lead at halftime. Twelve of the Marshals 16 in the quarter came at the free throw line while all nine of the Tigers points came from three-point range.
Alex Staples kicked off the Marshals second half charge with steals and lay ups, scoring the first two baskets of his 17 in the half and 23 for the night. Tommy Robertson capped off the 6-0 run to start the half on a 34-26 lead. Up 38-33, Langhi dropped in the Marshals first three-pointer of the game and they extended their lead to 50-38 on a three by Staples.
Leading 54-41 going into the fourth quarter, the Marshals held Murray to six points while putting up 19. Staples led with six, five from Langhi, four by Kyzer Phillips, a three from Neyland Jezik and one point at the line by Kaden Mohler made up the scoring.
Four players in double figures were led by Staples’ 23. Langhi finished with 22 and 10 each scored by Phillips and Robertson. Murray was led by Mitchell with 18 made up of six three-pointers.
Up next for the Marshals is a game against South Oldham at 12:30 on Saturday at South Warren in the BCBS Holiday Classic.
Marshall County 12 28 54 73
Murray 17 26 41 47
Marshall County (7-0): Alex Staples 23, Matthew Langhi 22, Kyzer Phillips 10, Tommy Robertson 10, Neyland Jezik 3, Kaden Mohler 3, Ryan Stokes 2
Murray (5-4): Maddox Mitchell 18, Harris Moore 10, Acey Stricklin 8, Jeremiah Jones 7, Aidan Lovett 2, Aiden Armstrong 2
