Marshall County’s Lady Marshals beat Calloway County 40-32 to win the 4th District Championship on Wednesday night in Murray. After winning four straight championships from 2020-2023, three of the four over Calloway County before the Lady Lakers claimed the title last season, the trophy is coming back to Marshall County.
After splitting their regular season district games, each team taking the win on their home court, a motivated Lady Lakers team looked poised to win back-to-back titles after the first half of play, but the Lady Marshals overcame a 10-point deficit to pull out the win by eight and cut down the nets.
“In the first half they really got after us and we didn’t do a very good job of responding to that”, Head Coach Aaron Beth said in post-game comments to WCBL’s Jeff Waters. “I told them at halftime to relax and there was a lot of game left to play. I couldn’t be more proud of how we responded. Our defense is what’s won us the last 9 out of 10 and the one we got beat, we kind of gave that away at Graves at the end.”
A suffocating defensive effort in the first half from the Lady Lakers put the Lady Marshals on their heels. Seven early points from Calloway’s Sayler Lowe pushed their lead to 9-2 prompting an early time out for the Lady Marshals.
Eden Sandlin dropped in a 3-pointer to trim it four out of the time out and despite only scoring eight in the first quarter, the Lady Marshals only trailed by six at 14-8.
Early in the second quarter, Laken Schroader grabbed a rebound then went the length of the court for the lay in to keep the Lady Marshals within six. A fired-up Calloway County team pushed their lead out to 10 and it was cut to eight at 20-12 at halftime on a basket by Lauren Noles.
Down by 10 again early in the third quarter, a time out from Beth and defensive adjustments in place preceded a 10-0 run by the Lady Marshals to tie the game up 24-24. The run was highlighted by an and-1 play by Skylar Waller, block by Addi Wall, Schroader with two steals and a 3-pointer by Kenzlee Terry.
Calloway’s Emma Grooms hit two free throws in the closing seconds of the third to give the Lady Lakers a two-point lead going into the fourth quarter.
A downcourt pass from Wall to Terry for the lay in knotted the game up again at 26 and the lead went back to Calloway on free throws from Kallie Franklin. Lowe picked up her fourth foul which sent Wall to the line to tie the game up again 28.
Waller free throws gave the Lady Marshals their first lead of the game at 30-28. Lowe tied it up at 30 for Calloway before picking up her fifth foul and heading to the bench with just under three minutes remaining.
The Lady Marshals finished out the game with a 10-2 run, hitting 10-of-12 at the free throw line.
Beth said, “We had people step up tonight. Lauren Noles hasn’t played a whole lot. She came in in that first half and gave us some valuable minutes and got us two points that’s probably not going to show up, but it shows up for me and it shows up for winning. I thought Laken came in and had a real solid game for us tonight.”
“The transition three that Kenzlee hit was big. Out of bounds play where Addi gets the two. Huge momentum plays. That’s what great basketball teams do. They find a way to get stops and get baskets when they need to get baskets.”
Waller led the Lady Marshals with 13 points, 12 coming in the second half. Lowe led the Lady Lakers with 20 points, 16 of those scored in the first half. The 3-point shot was hard to come by in the defensive battle, the Lady Marshals hitting two in the game from Sandlin and Terry while one for Calloway was made by Lowe.
The Lady Marshals were 16-of-21 at the free throw line, Waller hitting 9-of-11. Calloway was 6-of-10 at the line.
Both teams will move on the next week’s Region 1 Tournament.
All-District Tournament Team:
Marshall County: Addi Wall, Eden Sandlin, Skylar Waller, Kenzlee Terry
Calloway County: Jaycee Crouch, Jaidan Koch, Sayler Lowe
Murray: Kaydence Kindle, Mayla Smith
Christian Fellowship: Rylee Hudson
Marshall County 8 12 24 40
Calloway County 14 20 26 32
Marshall County (22-6): Skylar Waller 13, Kenzlee Terry 7, Addi Wall 7, Eden Sandlin 5, Laken Schroader 5, Lauren Noles 2, Rylee Teague 1
Calloway County (23-7): Sayler Lowe 20, Jaidan Koch 5, Kallie Franklin 4, Emma Grooms 2, Olivia Perkins 1
Game, All-District Team and cutting down the net photos below.
