Marshals season ends in 71-56 regional touranment loss to Mayfield

Austin Riley scored seven straight points in the second quarter to keep the Marshals to within one of Mayfield. Riley finished with 10 points in the Marshals 71-56 loss to the Cardinals.

Coming into the first round Region One Tournament game against Mayfield, the Marshals knew they could compete with the pre-season favorite after leading the Cardinals through the first two and a half quarters just two weeks ago before falling by 11.

Mayfield’s veteran squad of nine seniors that includes Region One Player of the Year, Conner Guthrie, came into Tuesday’s game with a record of 22-7. After trailing most of the first quarter, the Cardinals took the lead to start the second quarter and never gave it up, going on to beat the Marshals 71-56. They will advance to the semi-finals on Friday where they will play Paducah Tilghman, a 74-55 winner over Carlisle County.

“Some quarters, some halves…we are as good as anybody in the region”, Marshals Head Coach Terry Birdsong said. “It’s like watching the same movie over and over. We play good for a couple of quarters. Third quarter, two quick turnovers and they get baskets and we’re down eight…that quick.”

The game opened on three 3-pointers…the first from Mayfield’s Houston Lancaster, the second from Marshall’s Bryce Flatt followed by another three from Lancaster. Free throws from Tyler Stokes and a three from Tyler Powell gave the Marshals an 8-6 lead, tied 8-8 on a basket by Desean Jones before Powell dropped in the next two to put the Marshals up 20-14. Alonzo Daniel and Kade Neely scored the final four points of the quarter for Mayfield to cut the Marshals lead to 20-18.

A Conner Guthrie three gave the Cardinals the lead to open the second quarter followed up with another three from Jones for a 24-20 Mayfield lead. Seven points from Austin Riley kept the Marshals within one at 28-27 but Mayfield finished out the half out-scoring the Marshals 7-4 to lead 35-31 at halftime.

Consistent all season for the Marshals, Tyler Powell led with 19 points in Tuesday’s Region 1 Tournament opening round loss to the Mayfield Cardinals.

Jones fueled the Cardinals early in the second half to put them up by eight points, Stokes and Powell doing what they could to keep the Marshals close, but they would trail by 11 going into the fourth quarter.

Behind by 14 points in the fourth quarter, the Marshals picked up six points on two straight 3-pointers from Jay Nimmo and Stokes to cut the Mayfield lead to eight points and they would get no closer, the Cardinals finishing out the final four minutes out-scoring the Marshals 14-7 for the 71-56 win.

“We talked about it at halftime…two weeks ago we played Mayfield and did the exact same thing and we’re back on our heals”, Birdsong said of the Marshals second half play. “Some of that goes back to leadership…some of that goes back to just being able to play under pressure and being able to play in a big environment.”

Birdsong added that with the entire team back, the challenge next year will be to get back in the gym and improve, individually as well as a team.

“Part of basketball…part of sports is being able to play with confidence”, Birdsong said. “We’re the best 13-19 team in the state. We’ve played everybody in the region tough, we just haven’t been able to take that next step.”

  1   2   3  Final
Marshall  20  31  41   56
Mayfield  18  35  52   71

Marshall: Powell 19, A. Riley 10, Stokes 7, Flatt 7, Driver 6, Nimmo 5, Smothers 2
Mayfield: Jones 16, Neely 14, Matthews 11, Carson Guthrie 9, Conner Guthrie 8, Lancaster 7, Daniel 6

Mayfield defenders Conner Guthrie (left) and Kade Neely (11) close in on Bryce Flatt in the first half of the regional tournament game at the CFSB Center in Murray.