The Marshall County Special Olympics basketball teams traveled to Caldwell County and Ohio County on January 15 to play in tournaments.
In the first game at Caldwell County, Marshall 1 played the Stallions of McCracken County, losing a very close game 14-10. The Marshals were led by Vance Phelan with six points. In their second game Marshall 1 met the Christian County Colonels. The Colonels are a higher-level team and won 27-11. Marshall’s leading scorer was Chris Capone with four points.
The Marshall 3 mid-level team met McCracken County Stars in their first game losing a close one 22-16. The Marshals were led by Daniel Austin with six points. In their second game Marshall 3 played Murray Rockets White in a slow-paced game winning 14-6 and were again led by Daniel Austin with six six points.
The high-level team of Marshall 2 traveled to Hartford to play in the Ohio County Tournament. The lineup consisted of multiple State Champions. Marshall played the Louisville Wizards in their first game winning 26-12 led by Dylan Morris’ eight points. Their second game was against the host Ohio County Eagles and they won 42-26.
Comments from Coach Jonny Bryd: “We played two very tough, very physical and very talented teams. The Wizards #45 Jason Board was held to five points. We saw him put up 18 against the Owensboro Kings in a close game that ended 31-29 with the Wizards winning. He’s a great player. He’s about 6’5, they have #34 Cory Pitsenberger that is bigger than him. We knew we had to play a different defense against them. Our 1-3-1 worked. They’re coming to play in our Winter Blast Tournament January 29. I urge everyone to come out and see them! They’re great to watch.
In their second game things were not going to be any easier. Ohio County played two games before they met the Marshals winning 42-26 against an experienced Owensboro Dream Team and a Tri-county team from Henderson County 45-15, who was state runner-up a couple years ago. Ohio County was missing one of their best players in Issaih Smith but still had scorers Zack Payne and Shawn Phelps. We always play a 2-3 zone but I knew we had to man up against those two, so we went with a triangle and two. The first half was close with a halftime score of 23-20 with Marshall County leading. They left Phelps in with foul trouble who had four fouls at halftime. He had 10 points in the first half. We tried to take advantage of that but only outscored them 7-2 in the third quarter. He fouled out in the fourth. Marshall 2 finished the game strong winning 42-26. They were tired, we just picked up the tempo to finish the game.
