A night when basketball was secondary to an evening of love and support from the community and surrounding schools for the Marshall County High School students and staff whose lives were forever changed by the tragic events of Tuesday, January 23.
Admission to Monday’s double-header was waved and instead donations were received at the door. By the end of the night, over $11,500 was collected for the families of Bailey Holt and Preston Cope.
Knowing how emotional the night would be for his players, Head Coach Terry Birdsong said they didn’t talk much before the game about the crowd, not wanting them to feel the weight of the community on their shoulders as they took the floor to play Livingston Central.
“It’s been tough”, Birdsong said. “When you’re not in the building everyday with the kids it’s hard to express what you go through. We chose this profession. We like our job and we draw a check but we’re invested in these kids. When they’re hurting, we’re hurting. It’s hard to express it. So we’re just trying to focus on the positives. Winning and losing wasn’t in the big scheme of things but for our guys, it was big.”
The Marshals won 61-59 in overtime to a seasoned, veteran Livingston Central team, who at 15-10 are second in Region 2 standings behind Madisonville North Hopkins.
Skyler Smith opened the game with a 3-pointer for the Marshals that was equaled with a three by Livingston’s Cameron Head, his first of four in the game. The Marshals held the Cardinals to three points, going up 11-3, before their scoring drought ended on another three by Cameron Dean. Two three’s from Tyler Powell and Smith and points from Matt French and Aaron Reed gave the Marshals a 23-18 first quarter lead.
Tyler Stokes scored six of the Marshals 15 second quarter points, in an evenly played quarter that ended with the Marshals leading by seven at halftime.
The Cardinals tied the game up at 40 in the third quarter before the Marshals extended their lead to six on a basket and free throw by French and 3-pointer from Reed. Five straight points by Livingston’s Kobe Ringstaff cut the Marshals lead to one before a three by Reed beat the buzzer for a 49-45 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
The Cardinals took their first lead in the fourth at 56-55 with under two minutes to play, tied up at 56 on a free throw by Austin Riley. A three attempt by Smith missed the mark followed by a long attempt by Livingston that missed but a last-ditch effort found the net at the buzzer, called off by the referees to send the game into overtime.
Leading 60-59 in the overtime period with 12 second remaining, a jumper by Head missed for the Cardinals followed by a foul on Reed with 3.7 to go. Reed hit the first of two free throws to put the Marshals up by two, forcing the Cardinals to go the length of the floor to tie or go ahead with a three, with 2.7 seconds left. The ball sailed out-of-bounds off of Marshall County giving the Cardinals four-tenths of a second to get a shot off by Head that missed.
Happy with the win over a very good Livingston Central team, Birdsong said he really felt for his guys in a game filled with emotions.
“My big concern all weekend leading up to this game was that our guys would feel the weight of the world on them and if we didn’t win tonight we’d let everybody down…we needed something positive”, Birdsong said.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final/OT | |
| Livingston | 18 | 31 | 45 | 56 | 59 |
| Marshall | 23 | 38 | 49 | 56 | 61 |
SCORING
Livingston: Head 14, Ringstaff 12, Hosick 12, Dean 8, Sherer 7, Bebout 4, Stein 2
Marshall: Reed 15, Smith 13, Stokes 10, Powell 7, Riley 7, French 5, Flatt 4
Livingston: FG 20/42, 3 PT 10/18, FT 9/13, Reb 24, Fouls 16, Ast 17, TO 9
Marshall: FG 21/44, 3 PT 6/18, FT 13/17, Reb 28, Fouls 14, Ast 10, TO 6
