DRAFFENVILLE – The Marshals didn’t need to be reminded of their 31 point loss to Graves County at the Eagles Nest on January 13th and they didn’t get the win Friday over the Eagles, but redeemed themselves in their effort in the four point 46-42 loss.
The game began on a 8-2 Graves County lead in the first quarter while the Marshals killed quite a bit of clock passing and setting up their next shot, finally taken by Skyler Smith whose 3-pointer was their second field goal of the first quarter and they trailed the Eagles 8-5.
The Eagles went up 12-7 early in the second quarter following a dunk by Vogt, and an irritated Coach Gillespie drew a technical from officials that sent Grant to the line to add two more points and a 14-7 Graves County lead. The Eagles would score the final seven points of the second quarter to go up 24-13 at halftime.
Naranjo’s free throw to open the second half gave the Eagles their largest lead of the game at 12 points before the Marshals began to chip away and cut it to seven on free throws by Lucas Nichol and Aaron Reed, a three from Matt French and basket by Dylan Walters.
Free throws from Reed cut the Graves County lead to seven again after leading by nine, and he followed that up with a rebound off his own shot and tip in to cut the Eagles lead to five at 31-26. Jacob Savage added a couple points for the Eagles on free throws and the Marshals would get one more free throw by Reed to end the quarter trailing 33-27.
Reed scored the last seven of eight Marshall County points and added another three point play to start the fourth quarter and put the Marshals back in the game, trailing 33-30. The Eagles would stretch it back out to eight points before the Marshals cut it to three again with 4:03 left in the game following five points from Houston Harvey on free throws and a 3-pointer.
A free throw by Smith cut it to two at 40-38 with three minutes to go with a chance to take the lead if one of the next two three attempts would have found the basket. A free throw by Wetherington put the Eagles up by four, cut to one with 51.2 seconds to go on a three point play by Walters.
With 15.6 left on the clock, Reed hit one of two free throws to pull the Marshals to within a shot a tying at 45-42 but a final time at the line with 11.9 remaining for the Eagles paid off with Wetherington hitting one of two for the four point win.
“The last two and half, three minutes, I think we had one bad shot but the rest of our shots were good looks”, Coach Gus Gillespie said. “We just had a terrible second quarter. If we don’t have a terrible second quarter things are a lot different. We had to exert too much energy coming back from 11 down. We had it to four, but those two or three minutes cost you in a big game.”
Aaron Reed led the Marshals with 12 points and 6 rebounds while Vogt led the Eagles with 15 points and 11 rebounds.
The Marshals will play two district games next week, Tuesday at Murray and Friday at home against Calloway County. The Marshals have won the two previous meetings with the Tigers and Lakers this season.
SCORING
Graves: Vogt 15, Naranjo 12, Wetherington 5, Grant 5, Young 4, Shannon 3, Savage 2
Marshall: Reed 12, Walters 9, Smith 6, French 5, Harvey 5, Nichols 3, Prange 2
Graves: Field Goals 12/26, 3-pointers 2/6, Free Throws 20/31, Rebounds 28, Fouls 17, Assists 7, Turnovers 10
Marshall: Field Goals 12/36, 3-pointers 3/12, Free Throws 15/20, Rebounds 19, Fouls 19, Assists 5, Turnovers 2
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| Graves | 8 | 16 | 9 | 13 | 46 |
| Marshall | 5 | 8 | 14 | 15 | 42 |
