MURRAY – Marshall County swept Murray in both regular season games, but a third straight wasn’t in the cards, falling to the Tigers 61-46 in Monday’s 4th District title game at the CFSB Center in Murray.
“They’ve been playing so well up to tonight”, Coach Terry Birdsong said. “The reality is we got out-played tonight.”
Murray came out of the gate ready to play, jumping out to a 6-0 lead before Zion Harmon put the Marshals on the board. The Tigers finished out the first quarter out-scoring the Marshals 9-2 to lead 15-4. Sophomore Grant Whitaker, who led Murray with 19 points, scored a third of their first quarter points.
Kole Sedlock broke the scoring drought with the first four points of the second quarter for the Marshals, going on to score seven of their 13 points in the frame. Harmon left the game in early foul trouble after picking up his third and Trey Boggess dropped in two 3-pointers to lead Murray to a 33-17 halftime lead.
Harmon and Quinn Smith who both led the Marshals in scoring with 11 points a piece, combined for the 12 third quarter points but they were only able to chip away another two points of the Murray lead and still trailed by 14 headed into the fourth quarter.
With 3:09 left to play, the Marshals pulled to within 12 points but that’s as close as it would get. Murray freshman Zavion Carman scored six of his 10 points in the quarter. Sophomore Trey Wall dropped in a 3-pointer for the Marshals before the final buzzer on Murray’s 15 point win.
“We just didn’t get into any flow tonight”, Birdsong said. “Our kids compete, they’ve competed all year. I told them it’s tough to go out there and get a runner-up trophy in our district. I told the guys, go out there, I’m proud. They put a lot of work in to getting to this game tonight.”
Disappointed in the way they started the game, Birdsong said, “I still love these kids. Still love the fight. We just didn’t have it tonight. I thought Murray just outplayed us tonight.”
Murray made 21 trips to the free throw line, converting on 16 of those. The Marshals were 3-of-4 at the line.
The Marshals will look to redeem themselves when they open play in the 1st Region Tournament. The boys’ opening round games will take play on Monday and Tuesday and they will know their next opponent following Wednesday’s draw.
Murray 15 18 10 18 – 61
Marshall 4 13 12 17 – 46
Murray (15-7): Whitaker 19, Boggess 12, MacCallister 12, Carman 10, Taylor 7, Miles 1
Marshall (11-9): Q. Smith 11, Harmon 11, Sedlock 7, Schroader 6, Wall 3, Mills 2, Miller 2, R. Smith 2, Davis 2
All-Tournament Team: Murray – Grant Whittaker, Trey Boggess, Charqwan McCallister, Gabe Taylor. Marshall County – Zion Harmon, Quinn Smith, Kole Sedlock. Calloway County – Matthew Ray, Evan Garrison.
Photo gallery (click on photo to view larger image)
