Friday at the Graves County Eagle’s Nest it was a night of bonus basketball. The final 16.2 seconds that remained of the Dec. 10 game between the two rivals was played out with the Eagles leading 46-45 and the Marshals with the ball. Going the length of the court, a Marshall timeout was called to set things up. Colby Schroader attempted a three from the right corner that missed as time ran out on a Graves County win.
Players went back into the locker room to prepare for the second game of the series that was a typical classic battle, reminiscent of years past. By the end of the four quarters, four players fouled out – one Marshal and three Eagles – technicals were called and at the buzzer, the Marshals avenged the earlier loss by a final score of 71-66.
“This reminded me of games in the early 2000’s that were just physical, both coaches were on the referees hard”, Coach Terry Birdsong said. “We’re never proud of that but mostly it’s just fighting for our kids. We all want to win. We’re all under a lot of pressure to win and sometimes our emotions get the best of us.”
Those emotions were in high gear with 62 trips combined to the free throw line. The Marshals going 26-of-35 and it paid off in the closing 30.9 seconds of the game when they hit seven of eight attempts.
“We got a good foul shooting team”, Birdsong said. “We’re shooting over 80 percent as a team so we were very comfortable with our guys going to the line. We got in the double bonus which is always nice.”
The Eagles came out firing from three-point range in the first quarter, hitting five of their nine in the game. Two each by Drew Thompson and Lucas Pigg and one from Aydan Flint and they led 16-13 at the end of the quarter.
Quinn Smith cut the lead to one point to open the second quarter and following a technical on Graves County Head Coach Josh Frick, Colby Schroader took the shots at the line to give the Marshals a 17-16 lead. Thompson’s third three put the Eagles back on top and the second quarter battle was on.
Trailing 33-31 with 11.2 on the clock, Wade Moore scored and drew the foul to finish off the three-point play and give the Marshals a 34-33 halftime lead. Moore’s 10 first half points led the Marshals.
Two ties and three lead changes made up the third quarter and Schroder’s basket that beat the buzzer cut the Eagles lead to two points and his first basket of the fourth quarter tied the game at 49-49.
With 4:32 left in the game, Cole Mills hit his second three of the game to extend the Marshals lead to 55-49. Hanging on to a four-point lead, Mills scored and a double-technical was called with Mills hitting his and Mason Grant making good at the other end and the lead was five.
A block by Mills who then brought it back down the court and fed the ball to Kole Sedlock under the goal stretched the Marshals lead to seven points with 1:38 to go and they closed the game out with successful trips to the free throw line.
“We felt like that might be fool’s gold late”, Birdsong said of the Eagles first quarter shooting. “Then they started missing and we changed our defense for four or five minutes that really seemed to bother them. I think they made one field goal the whole time we were in it. Once we got them to extend themselves, then we started getting easy baskets.”
Five players finished in double figures for the Marshals – Mills (17), Sedlock (13), Smith (12), Schroader (11) and Moore (10). The Eagles had four in double figures led by Thompson (23), Pigg (18), Flint (12) and Grant (10).
Marshall 13 21 13 24 – 71
Graves 16 17 16 17 – 66
Marshall (10-6): Mills 17, Sedlock 13, Smith 12, Schroader 11, Moore 10, Wall 6
Graves (7-7): Thompson 23, Pigg 18, Flint 12, Grant 10, VeuCasivic 2, Isaiah 1
Marshall County vs Graves County, 1-14-22
