DRAFFENVILLE – Marshall County Head Coach Gus Gillespie thought his team struggled for the first 10 minutes of the game against a Tilghman team that came ready to play. The Marshals fell behind by 10 points in the first quarter, ending on a basket by Dylan Walters to cut the Tornados lead to 15-7.
Falling behind by 12 points early in the second quarter, a 6-0 Marshall run on baskets by Matt French, Aaron Reed and Walters cut the Tilghman lead to six and they would head to the locker room at halftime trailing 24-19.
“Finally at about the 5:30 mark in the second quarter, a few things went our way and Flatt made a nice play at the end of the first half to cut it to five”, Gillespie said. “At halftime we felt pretty good saying hey, we played terrible, we didn’t do anything for 10 minutes and we’re down five.”
Tilghman led 28-20 coming out of halftime following baskets by Maurice Cooper and Rodriguez Thomas prompting a time out by Gillespie that the Marshals came out of and scored seven straight points on two steals and baskets by Tristen Prange and Aaron Reed and a three from Tyler Stokes to cut Tilghman’s lead to 28-27. With 50 seconds left in the quarter, Houston Harvey’s 3-pointer put the Marshals in the lead for the first time in the game at 30-28. Thomas had a chance to tie the game for Tilghman at the line with a second left but missed both free throws.
Workman hit his third three to start the fourth quarter to put Tilghman back up by one but a three from French put the Marshals back up by two and a basket by Walters gave them a 35-31 lead. Four straight free throws by JJ Reed and DeCoven Grubbs tied the game 35-35.
Tied again at 36 a piece, baskets by Reed and Walters gave the Marshals a four point lead but it would bounce back and forth between a two point lead and four point lead until 1:55 left in the game when a free throw by Workman cut it to one, then the Tornados took the lead back 43-42 on a basket by Reed.
The Marshals scored the final four points on a basket by French and two free throws from Lucas Nichols with 7.2 seconds to go for the 48-43 win.
Coach Gillespie was proud of the total team effort in the win saying, “I told the kids it didn’t matter if you played one minute, 30 minutes, 15 minutes, I can name every one of you that made a huge play, whether it was a rebound, a steal, a shot.”
The win moves the Marshals to 11-4 and they will have their work cut out for them on Friday when they play the 12-5 Graves County Eagles.
SCORING
Tilghman: Reed 12, Workman 10, Grubbs 6, Laster 6, Thomas 4, Cooper 3, Harmon 2
Marshall: Walters 14, French 9, Reed 8, Harvey 6, Nichols 4, Stokes 3, Prange 2, Flatt 2
Tilghman: Field Goals 14/32, 3-pointers 3/17, Free Throws 12/19, Rebounds 19, Fouls 13, Assists 6, Turnovers 17
Marshall: Field Goals 18/39, 3-pointers 4/9, Free Throws 8/10, Rebounds 23, Fouls 9, Assists 7, Turnovers 16
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| Tilghman | 15 | 9 | 4 | 15 | 43 |
| Marshall | 7 | 12 | 11 | 18 | 48 |