PADUCAH – In the four years since the consolidation of McCracken County schools, the Marshals have yet to win at Strawberry Hills Pharmacy Gymnasium until Friday when a 12-2 run by the Marshals in the closing two minutes of the game gave them their first win.
Coach Gillespie said in post-game comments that he told his players, “let’s go get it done.”
“I felt like the kids had great confidence to put together a good effort over here and make enough plays down the stretch, which we were able to do, to get a win”, Gillespie said. “I told our kids, it’s been a long time, we needed a signature win. It’s been a long time since we’ve had one of those and this was nice, we dove on the floor, we played hard and we played with a lot of guts and I’m proud of them.”
The Marshals took the early first quarter lead 10-7, a quarter that began with a slam by Aaron Reed with Dylan Walters adding three points and five points coming from Matt French on a 3-pointer and basket at the buzzer.
Hunter Harvey drained a three to start the second quarter and Skyler Smith followed it up with one of his own to put the Marshals up 16-9. McCracken County went on to out-score the Marshals 10-4 behind four points each from Cameron Cartwright and Tyce Daniel and a couple of free throws by Will Sivills. The Marshals held onto a 20-19 lead at halftime.
Sivills gave the Mustangs their first lead of the game to open the second half on a 3-pointer and Walters scored the next six for the Marshals with eight of his 14 points coming in the quarter. Down 31-26, Smith added two points on a nice put back after a missed three by French and a basket by Reed tied the game 32-32. Nathan Stonecipher and Daniels put the Mustangs back up by four and would lead 37-34 at the end of the quarter.
The fourth quarter began on free throws, three that were made by Walters and a couple misses by Stonecipher that tied the game 37-37. Harvey hit his second three in the game to put the Marshals up by three and from that point on, their 12-2 run to close out the 54-44 win was highlighted by free throws from Nichols with three and Harvey who hit five of his six in the game in the final 51.7 seconds.
“They’ve been through some tough games”, Gillespie said of their series with the Mustangs. “They’ve been knocked around before and they just had enough”.
Gillespie commended all his players on their contributions in the win saying, “We can enjoy this one but we can’t rest on it, we’ve got things to work on for a very tough game Tuesday night against Murray High.”
SCORING
Marshall: Walters 14, Reed 12, Harvey 11, Smith 7, French 7, Nichols 3
McCracken: Sivills 12, Daniel 10, Cartwright 8, Stonecipher 7, Mayes 4, Hagan 3
Marshall: Field Goals 18/49, 3-pointers 4/17, Free Throws 14/21, Total Rebounds 33, Fouls 16, Assists 8, Turnovers 11
McCracken: Field Goals 15/46, 3-pointers 4/17, Free Throws 10/15, Total Rebounds 34, Fouls 17, Assists 6, Turnovers 17
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| Marshall | 10 | 10 | 14 | 20 | 54 |
| McCracken | 7 | 12 | 18 | 7 | 44 |
