In the strong 4th District, many years there’s one deserving team that doesn’t make it to the Region 1 tournament and this year, for the first time in seven years, it’s the Marshals whose season ends in a 60-43 district tournament semi-final loss to Calloway County. The Lakers will meet cross-town rival Murray, who beat Christian Fellowship 81-42, in Tuesday’s championship game.
Struggling from the floor, the Marshals shot 25 percent in the game and Head Coach Terry Birdsong said, “You’re not going to beat anyone shooting that”.
“When you go 13 for 51 against a team like that, nothing works”, said Birdsong “We started out zone, we guarded them man twice and they scored 14 to 15 points more than we give up in a season. We had problems rebounding against them. Free throws kept us in the game and our hustle.”
A 3-pointer from Calloway’s Matthew Ray to open the game and a couple more in the quarter by Eli Finley set the Lakers up for a 14-6 first quarter lead. Quinn Smith scored four for the Marshals and Cole Mills rounded out the six points at the line.
The Marshals fell behind by 15 points in the second quarter with Finley and Jonah Butler scoring six each of the Lakers 19 points for a 33-16 halftime lead.
Both teams scored nine points in the third and the Lakers lead held at 17 points heading into the fourth. Kolby Schroader had two 3-pointers in the quarter and scored eight of the Marshals nine points.
Riley Smith, playing in his first game his senior season after being released from knee surgery just days before, gave the Marshals a lift off the bench with four points to cut into the Lakers lead at 45-31.
With 3:20 remaining, a steal and lay in by Wade Moore, cut the lead down to 10 at 49-39 but the Lakers answered each bucket by the Marshals, closing things out at the line in the closing moments hitting 8-of-10.
Schroader led the Marshals with 11 points. Ray and Finley scored 16 each to lead the Lakers.
Five seniors played their final game in the Marshals uniform and Birdsong said they gave everything they had to the program.
“We saw today how big a loss Riley Smith’s been”, said Birdsong. “He had more points and rebounds than some guys that have played all year. We missed him. Talon Smothers didn’t play last year, didn’t play this summer but he made a lot of strides. It’s hard to come back at this level. Sedlock had a fantastic year…double digit scorer. Schroader had some big games and Quinn’s kind of been the glue for us…the mainstay for us.”
Birdsong said they’ve got work to do adding, “Our younger guys have got to get in the gym and get better.”
Marshall 6 10 9 18 – 43
Calloway 14 19 9 18 – 60
Marshall: Schroader 11, Moore 8, Mills 7, R. Smith 5, Q. Smith 4, Sedlock 4, Smothers 2, Wallace 2
Calloway: Ray 20, Finley 20, Butler 16, Hudgin 2, Franklin 2
Marshall (17-12): FG 13/51, 3 PT 4/22 (Schroader 3, Moore 1), FT 13/18 (Mills 5/6), REB 30, AST 6, TO 12, PF 19
Calloway (16-13): FG 19/39, 3 PT 6/20 (Ray 3, Finley 3), FT 16/23 (Butler 10/13), REB 32 (Butler 14), AST 10, TO 14, PF 14
Marshals vs Calloway County, 4th District Tournament 2-19-22
