Marshall County opened play in the CFSB Region 1 Tournament on Thursday against McCracken County, a team they split games with during the regular season. Their January 10 win at home over McCracken County broke a 14-game losing streak but it will be the Mustangs who advance to Saturday’s semifinals after beating the Marshals 62-45.
After trailing by as many as 25 points in the third quarter, the Marshals staged a comeback and cut the lead down to eight points to start the fourth quarter, but the Mustangs continued to make the shots needed to stretch their lead back out and win by 17.
“I can’t say enough about our fight, our toughness”, Head Coach Sawyer Donohoo said to WCBL. “A lot of teams would pack it in right there. That’s just not who this group is. The last two, three games we’ve played it’s kind of been like that. We get down and we’ve always made a run and they don’t quit and that’s just a testament to a great group of kids.”
Senior Chase Binkley opened up the scoring with a lay in but McCracken County followed with an 8-0 run. The Mustangs took their largest lead of the first quarter at 20-8 following senior Jack Bradley’s third 3-pointer. Wade Moore, who had nine in the quarter for the Marshals, hit a 3-pointer to close it to 23-13 heading into the second quarter.
Sophomore Alex Staples scored to cut the Marshals deficit down to eight points but the Mustangs finished out the half outscoring them 15-4 to take a 38-19 lead at halftime, getting a long three that found the net before the buzzer by Jonathan Venable.
Marshall County played the remainder of the game without senior leader Wade Moore who left the game in the first half with an injury. After trailing by their largest margin at 44-19, the ‘never quit’ in this Marshals team began closing the gap. A 3-pointer from Trey Wall got things rolling, and they went on a 17-2 run to finish out the quarter down by 10 at 46-36.
Logan Davis scored the first basket of the fourth quarter to trim the Mustangs lead to eight points but they would get no closer. McCracken County outscored the Marshals 16-7 from there to get the win and advance.
Despite exiting the game in the second quarter with an injury, Moore led the Marshals in scoring with nine points. Carson Purvis and Jack McCune each had 14 points to lead the Mustangs.
The Marshals season comes to an end with a record of 20-11. McCracken County improves to 27-5 and will play Carlisle County in Saturday’s 2:30 semifinal. The Comets beat Graves County 56-51.
“They bought in from what we wanted to do from day one”, Donohoo said. “They’re fighters, they’re touch kids. They love each other. The teamwork, you can see that out on the floor. They play well together and it’s just a great group.”
Eight seniors played their final game for the Marshals – Hunter Anderson, Chase Binkley, Logan Davis, Wade Moore, Jack Thompson, Trey Wall, Hunter Wallace and Jacob Wilson.
“An unbelievable group of seniors, for me my first year”, Donohoo said. “A group I will never forget.”
Marshall County 13 6 17 9 – 45
McCracken County 23 15 8 16 – 62
Marshall County: Wade Moore 9, Trey Wall 8, Alex Staples 8, Logan Davis 7, Chase Binkley 4, Logan Parker 4, Hunter Wallace 3, Tommy Robertson 2
McCracken County: Carson Purvis 14, Jack McCune 14, Jack Bradley 11, Connor Miller 8, Ian Hart 8, Jonathan Venable 5, Jackson Klope 2
Marshall County: FT 4/5, 3PT (Wall 2, Wallace 1, Moore 1, Davis 1)
McCracken County: FT 7/11, 3PT (Bradley 3, Purvis 1, Miller 1, McCune 1, Venable 1)
