In their first game of the new year, Marshall County played host Hopkinsville in the City of Hopkinsville Holiday Classic. In the late game with a tipoff of 8:30, an extra four minutes of overtime was needed to decide the outcome after a 58-58 tie at the end of regulation. The Marshals outscored the Tigers 10-2 in overtime to win 68-62.
They were playing without leading scorer Alex Staples who suffered an ankle injury in their December 29 game against South Laurel. The junior is expected to remain sidelined for another week or two.
Matthew Langhi led the Marshals scoring with 19 points earning Player of the Game honors. Langhi hit one of two Marshall County three pointers and was 4-of-4 at the free throw line. Hopkinsville senior Antonio Williams scored 27 for the Tigers.
The Marshals led by three at 11-8 at the end of the first quarter behind five points from Tommy Robertson.
Langhi scored the first five points of the second quarter and another five from Logan Parker combined for 10 of their 16 second quarter points but they were outscored by five to trail 29-27 at halftime. Hopkinsville’s DeShaun Garland banked in a three pointer before the buzzer to put the Tigers on top.
Marshall County opened the second half on a 6-0 run to lead 33-29. Hopkinsville came back to take the lead at 41-40 and a third quarter ending dunk from Williams put the Tigers up 47-44..
Early in the fourth quarter, the Marshals regained the lead at 48-47 and a back-and-forth battle played out the remaining minutes. With one minute to go, a basket by Robertson put the Marshals up 56-55 but it was followed by the second banked three of the night for the Tigers from Deavery Ramey. With seconds to go, Parker scored to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Kyzer Phillips dropped in a three pointer to open the overtime period for the Marshals. Leading 65-62 with just under a minute remaining, Parker scored and hit the second of two free throws to give the Marshals the six-point win.
Marshall County improves to 10-4 and will welcome a week’s break from competition before meeting Graves County at the Eagles Nest next Friday.
Marshall 11 16 17 14 | 10 – 68
Hopkinsville 8 21 18 11 | 4 – 62
Marshall (10-4): Matthew Langhi 19, Logan Parker 16, Tommy Robertson 15, Kyzer Phillips 7, Orrin Phelps 5, Cash Henson 4, Ryan Stokes 2
Marshall: FG 26/60, 3PT 2/13, FT 14/19 (Langhi 4/4, Parker 4/5), Reb 41 (Robertson 11)
Hopkinsville (6-9): Antonio Williams 27, Deavery Ramey 11, DeReion Dudley 8, Keontae Radford 5, Jonathan Hart 4, DeShaun Garland 3, Jarae Leavell 2, James Bradley 2