Marshall County’s last appearance in the First Region Championship game was in 2014 when they lost 43-41 in overtime to McCracken County in their first year of consolidation. Fast forward six years and the two teams meet again in the title game and with 13 seconds to go, the Marshals were up 42-41. A foul on McCracken County’s Noah Dumas with 1.8 seconds left on the clock sent the junior to the line. He found the net on both to give the Mustangs a 43-42 lead leaving the Marshals with the length of the court and 1.8 seconds on the clock.
Bryce Flatt found Tyler Stokes at half court, Stokes hits the floor along Ramon Heard, no foul called, ball to the Mustangs and that was the game along with the Marshals hopes of a return trip to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in eight years.
“There are certain elements of the game we can control…offense and defense what we do…maybe somewhat what the other teams do”, Marshals Head Coach Terry Birdsong said. “We can’t control how it ended.”
The Marshals took an early 5-0 lead on a game-opening three from Powell and basket by Zion Harmon, one they held until a 3-pointer from Dumas tied the game at 9-9. The Mustangs scoring the final four points of the quarter to lead 13-9.
Powell cut the lead down to two points and they tied it up again at 13-13 on free throws by Stokes. Trialing 17-13 with 55 seconds left, Kaden Driver beat the buzzer to take the Marshals into the locker room down by two, in a half they struggled from the floor shooting 15 percent, going 4-for-26 but perfect from the stripe hitting 6-of-6.
McCracken County led the entire third quarter behind nine points from Jackson Sivills. The Marshals getting to within one point at 25-24 on a three from Harmon and he finished out the quarter with a long three to keep the Marshals within six points at 33-27.
Jay Nimmo found the net from behind the arc to cut the lead in half to start the fourth quarter, Stokes cut it to one point and a three from Powell following a basket by Sivills tied the game at 35-35 with four and a half to play.
Down 39-37, a jump ball went to the Marshals and Harmon’s jumper found the net to tie the game at 39 with 49 seconds remaining. Free throws from Sivills put the Mustangs up 41-39 and with 13 seconds to go, Powell hit a corner three to give the Marshals the lead before the final 1.8 seconds ended the Marshals season.
They finish at 23-11 in what Coach Birdsong felt was one of the toughest schedules in the history of the program, “To win 23 games and be resilient. At one time we were about 4-7 and they kept fighting and kept practicing hard and then our schedule became more manageable. We won 16 out of 17 coming into today and we fell a point short.”
Harmon led with 16 points followed by 13 from Powell. Sivills led the Mustangs with 21 points and selected Most Valuable Player. Harmon and Stokes were named to the All-Tournament Team.
Five seniors played their final game in the orange and blue, Birdsong saying, “Our five seniors are much more than basketball players, they’re good students, they’re leaders in our school. Stokes, Powell, Flatt, Smothers, Riley…all those guys just mean a lot to me personally, a lot to our coaches personally. They all played different roles this year and they did everything we asked them to do.”
“I told the guys, we went down swinging…we gave it everything we had…and we fell a point short.”
Marshall County 9 15 27 42
McCracken County 13 17 33 43
Scoring
Marshall County: Zion Harmon 16, Tyler Powell 13, Tyler Stokes 8, Jay Nimmo 3, Kaden Driver 2
McCracken County: Jackson Sivills 21, Noah Dumas 12, Ramon Heard 4, Ian McCune 4, Brant Brower 2
Marshall County: FG 14/47, 3 Pt 6/19, FT 8/8, Reb 22, Ast 4, TO 3, PF 16
Record: 23-11
McCracken County: FG 13/30, 3 Pt 2/9, FT 15/16, Reb 30, Ast 3, TO 11, PF 14
Record: 30-5
