Marshall County and Lexington Catholic squared off Saturday evening in the second game of the evening Hoopfest session. The Knights were the 11th Region runner-up last year with two players entertaining D1 offers. Senior TC Price has offers from Toledo and Navy and Zan Payne who is the son of Kentucky Associate Head Coach Kenny Payne, has interest from Indiana State.
In a low-scoring first half, the two teams were tied 7-7 at the end of the first quarter with Marshall County scoring coming from Skyler Smith with five points and Aaron Reed with two. The second quarter was much like the first which led to a Lexington Catholic 15-14 halftime lead, after a long three at the buzzer by Austin Riley cut their lead to one point.
Four straight points by Reed put the Marshals up 18-17 in the third quarter before falling behind 26-20. A 3-pointer by Matt French cut the Knights lead to three and the Marshals would tie the game at 28 before trailing 33-31 at the end of the quarter.
Tied up three times in the first half of the fourth quarter, Lexington Catholic went up 42-37 with three minutes remaining following free throws from Payne and with one minute to go, a steal and basket by Payne put the Knights up by seven.
Tyler Powell sank a three to close the gap to within four points but forced to foul in the closing seconds, free throws from Max Sparkman put Lexington Catholic up 45-40 for the win. They were led by Payne who scored 22 points and pulled in 11 rebounds, earning Most Valuable Player.
Reed led the Marshals with 12 points and seven rebounds followed by nine points and six rebounds by Smith.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | Final | |
| Lexington Catholic | 7 | 15 | 33 | 45 |
| Marshall County | 7 | 14 | 31 | 40 |
SCORING
Lexington Catholic: Payne 22, Price 8, Johnson 6, Bailey 4, Sparkman 3, Scott 2
Marshall County: Reed 12, Smith 9, Nichols 6, Powell 5, French 5, Riley 3
Lexington Catholic: FG 18/46, 3 pt 3/17, FT 6/13, Reb 32, Fouls 17, AST 4, TO 10, ST 5
Marshall County: FG 15/44, 3 pt 4/16, FT 6/10, Reb 30, Fouls 16, AST 8, TO 10, ST 2
