It’s been four years since the Marshals have advanced past the first round of the regional tournament, making it to the championship game in 2014, losing in overtime to McCracken County. The resilient team put together four good quarters of basketball to defeat Paducah Tilghman 68-61 Thursday to advance to the semi-finals on Monday against Graves County. Graves County beat Hickman County 88-48 in the first game Thursday at the CFSB Center to advance to Monday’s semi-final.
“We felt like we had a good game plan”, Head Coach Terry Birdsong said. “Sixty was the magic number for us tonight but we gave up 61. That’s the first time for us, that we’ve been able to give up 60 points and win this year.”
Following a game-opening basket by Tyler Stokes, JJ Reed scored 10 straight for Tilghman, including two 3-pointers, to give the Tornados a 10-6 lead. Tilghman’s largest lead of the first quarter came at 16-9 before a three by freshman Jay Nimmo cut it to 16-12 to end the first quarter.
A basket by Skyler Smith cut the Tilghman lead to two, tied up by Tyler Stokes with the go-ahead field goal coming from Aaron Reed for an 18-16 lead. Nimmo’s third 3-pointer stretched the lead out to five points before five straight from Joe Workman for Tilghman tied the game at 21-21. The Marshals closed out the second quarter out-scoring Tilghman 10-4, finishing off the half on a lay-in by Austin Riley to lead 31-25 at halftime.
Foul trouble set in for the Marshals in the third quarter with Reed and Stokes both picking up their third. With the two on the bench, Tyler Powell stepped up to score the first nine points in the quarter, Matt French added three and Bryce Flatt two to hold on to a 45-40 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Tilghman cut the Marshals lead to one point before a three by Flatt and basket by Stokes gave them some breathing room at 50-44. Still up by six points, a drive to the basket by Nimmo resulted in a foul while he was a bit shook up on the play after hitting the floor hard. He dropped in both from the line for a 54-46 lead.
Workman and JJ Reed combined for seven points to cut the Marshals lead to 55-53. Reed and Riley put four points on the board for a six point lead, cut to four again on free throws by JJ Reed. After sinking two free throws to put the Marshals up 61-55, Stokes committed his fifth foul of the game with two minutes left to play.
Leading 64-58, the Marshals made four of six attempts at the free throw line in the final 45 seconds, securing their spot in the semi-finals with the 68-61 win.
Under a full-court press by Tilghman most of the game, Birdsong felt his team made better decisions under the press than in previous games and credited Nimmo with his great play as well as Flatt and French for coming in and making a difference, especially with Reed and Stokes on the bench in foul trouble.
“It was a good team effort”, Birdsong said. “We’re going to keep going, we’ve got another big one on Monday. Our kids are excited and I’m happy for them.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | Final | |
| Tilghman | 16 | 25 | 45 | 61 |
| Marshall | 12 | 31 | 40 | 68 |
SCORING
Tilghman: Workman 25, Reed 18, Harmon 8, Cooper 6, Thomas 4
Marshall: Nimmo 12, Stokes 12, Reed 11, Powell 10, French 8, Flatt 6, Smith 5, Riley 4
Tilghman: FG 19/49, 3 PT 4/15, FT 19/28, Reb 22, Fouls 19, Ast 4, TO 8
Marshall: FG 22/35, 3 PT 6/12, FT 18/26, Reb 31, Fouls 19, Ast 13, TO 14
