The Lady Marshals held Region 12’s Rockcastle County to just one field goal and three free throws in the entire first half on Thursday but the Rockets picked up their play in the second half and made a game of it, at one point cutting the lead to six points but the Lady Marshals held on to win 45-34.
Whitnee Miller put the Lady Marshals on the board first with a free throw, equaled by Rockcastle’s Mackenzie Himes before out-scoring the Rockets 10-1 the rest of the first quarter to lead 11-2, with scoring coming from Tera Colson with five points, Cayson Conner with three and Layne Pea two.
Rockcastle’s only field goal of the first half came in the second quarter, out-scored 10-3 to trail the Lady Marshals 21-5 at halftime. Emily Bridges had three of those points, Pea with a 3-pointer and a basket each by Colson and Miller.
Rockcastle came alive in the third quarter, out-scoring the Lady Marshals 17-12, led by Shelby Newland with seven of her 10 points in the game and closing out the quarter with a three from Mackenzie Payne. Half of the Lady Marshals 12 third quarter points were scored by Colson, Conner added four and two from Miller to hang on to an 11 point lead.
Five straight points by Rockcastle cut the lead to six before a timely three by Conner put the Lady Marshals back up by nine. A basket by Pea stretched the lead out to 12 but Rockcastle kept battling and cut it back to singles digits at 40-31.
Struggling from the free throw line in the closing minutes, the Lady Marshals were 1/8 before Bridges knocked down two and Conner finished the with two to beat Rockcastle County 45-34.
“I felt like we had some kids that really played hard”, Head Coach Martin Clapp said in post game comments to WCBL’s Aaron Clayton. “The two biggest disappointments were rebounding and our free throws.”
Rockcastle out-rebounded the Lady Marshals 39-26 and they were 10 of 23 from the free throw line.
“I thought Tera played really well tonight with a bad wrist…Cayson knocked down some shots”, Clapp said. “I thought Layne Pea knocked down a couple of shots. Inside I was very proud of Whitnee Miller. Whitnee played hard…she was really the only one that would bang and get physical with her post players.”
The Lady Marshals will try to pick up another win on Friday when they play Egyptian, IL at 1:00 in the final game of the Holiday Classic. Egyptian lost 90-25 to Graves County and 77-51 to Livingston Central in their two games on Wednesday and Thursday.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | Final | |
| Rockcastle | 2 | 5 | 22 | 34 |
| Marshall | 11 | 21 | 33 | 45 |
SCORING
Rockcastle: Newland 10, Payne 6, Brown 4, Himes 4, Jones 3, Adams 2, Coleman 1, Bullens 1
Marshall: Colson 14, Conner 13, Pea 8, Miller 5, Bridges 5
Rockcastle: FG 12/40, 3 Pt 5/12, FT 5/18, Reb 39, Fouls 20, Asst 7, TO 15
Marshall: FG 15/36, 3 Pt 5/12, FT 10/23, Reb 26, Fouls 18, Asst 7, TO 7