Coming into this season, the Lady Marshals led the overall series against McCracken County 16 to three, but the Lady Mustangs added two more wins this season to that stat starting with a Jan. 4 win and sweeping the two-game series on Saturday’s 62-41.
Ranked #1 in KHSAA RPI standings, McCracken County improved to 21-1 with the win. Their only loss coming on Dec. 20 against DuPont Manual.
Coming up with the opening tip, the Lady Marshals turned the ball over and McCracken turned it into a 3-0 lead on a 3-pointer by sophomore Mikee Buchanan. Freshman Skylar Waller answered for the Lady Marshals with a 3-pointer at the other end. Caroline Sivills scored the third straight 3-pointer to open the game and followed it up with a couple free throws for an 8-3 Lady Mustangs lead.
Two threes from Waller and Jada Driver and a basket by Laken Schroader cut the McCracken lead to one at 12-11 but an 8-0 run closed out the quarter on a 20-11 Lady Mustangs lead.
Halle Langhi scored the first four points of the second quarter to cut the lead down to five points and they out-scored McCracken 9-8 in the quarter to close the gap at halftime to 28-20.
McCracken opened the second half with a 6-0 run to stretch their lead out to 14 points. A five-point swing on baskets by Langhi and Driver cut the lead to single digits at nine points and that’s a close as it would get the remainder of the way. McCracken answering every short run the Lady Marshals put together to close the gap.
Destiny Thomas scored 11 of her 22 points in the third quarter to give the Lady Mustangs a 50-36 lead and they built on it in the fourth, outscoring the Lady Marshals 12-5 to win by 21.
McCracken had eight 3-pointers, led by Claire Johnson with three and they were 14-of-17 from the free throw line. The Lady Marshals also had a good night at the line, hitting 13-of-15. Waller, who led with 14 points, was 6-of-6 at the line and is ranked first in the state with an 88.7 free throw shooting percentage.
“Our turnovers are killing us and we’ve got to find a way to take care of the basketball better”, Coach Aaron Beth said. “It’s got to be a team effort…it’s got to be where everybody contributes and helps and we’ve got to be able to attack and get some baskets.”
Up next is a Friday game at Christian Fellowship (15-5) and a home game against Apollo (11-10) on Saturday.
McCracken 20 8 22 12 – 62
Marshall 11 9 16 5 – 41
McCracken (21-1): Thomas 22, Johnson 15, Buchanan 11, Sivills 10, Daye 2, Riley 2
Marshall (13-5): Waller 14, Langhi 13, Driver 8, Hall 3, Schroader 2, Henson 1
Marshall: FG 12/40, 3 PT 4/11 (Waller 2, Driver 2), FT 13/16 (Waller 6/6), REB 24 (Langhi 10)
