A memorable season has come to an end for the Marshall County Marshals in a place where dreams are made of. The Marshals lost 72-55 to Adair County on Wednesday in the KHSAA Boys’ Basketball Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena.
“A dream come true”, said senior Logan Parker when asked about his career ending at Rupp Arena. “Every kid dreams of playing here. It sucks the way it ended but proud of these guys next to me and the team. We’ve competed, we’ve battled and I couldn’t ask for better guys to play with. Even though it’s not the ending we wanted. I couldn’t ask for a better year my senior year.”
Both teams came into their opening round games with more than a decade passing since their program’s last appearance. Twelve years for the Marshals and 15 for the Adair County Indians.
Parker opened the game with a dunk which thrilled the masses of orange and blue that made the trip to Lexington. From there, the scoring went back and forth until Adair County finished the first quarter off with three three-pointers to stretch the lead out to 19-8.
They trimmed the Indians lead to five at 22-17 behind scoring from Matthew Langhi, Kaden Mohler and Tommy Robertson. The first three of the game by Robertson cut the lead to three late in the second quarter and they trailed 31-24 at halftime.
Langhi opened the half with a basket that cut the lead to five but the third quarter proved to be one of frustration. The Adair County lead grew to as many as 13 and each time the Marshals chipped away at it, the Indians answered and took a 48-36 lead into the fourth quarter.
Adair County, who shot a little over 62 percent for the game, continued to find the net and outscored the Marshals 24-19 in the final quarter to advance to the round of eight. After struggling from three-point range, the Marshals hit three straight to end the night from Parker, Isaac Darnall and Neyland Jezik.
“Obviously disappointed”, Head Coach Sawyer Donohoo said. “We didn’t get off to a good start and it was one of those that just kind of snowballed. They shot it very well and we thought the physicality bothered us, which is something honestly, I thought that we would give them problems with that. Kind of turned the tables on us there. I’m proud of these guys. Wasn’t our night tonight.”
Adair County head coach Jeffrey Breeze said with one or two days to prepare as opposed to the 10 days they had, he wasn’t sure they would be able to beat the Marshals.
“They’ve got some of the best defense we’ve seen but our whole game plan really coming in was, when you watch a lot of First Region basketball, everybody kind of plays the same”, Breeze said. “Everybody attacks from the top five on five. Our whole goal was to try and get under the defense, attack from the baseline and I thought we did a real well job of that in the first half and built a lead and then once we got the lead we thought we could go zone.”
Breeze said he has a lot of great shooters on the team, “sometimes we hit, sometimes we miss but you know we came out and hit tonight.”
Adair County finished with nine threes in the game, led by junior Lane Grant who went 3-for-4 and as a team they hit nine of 17.
“When they started hitting those shots we tried to adjust, but again it’s one of those you tip your hat to them”, Donohoo said. “They shot it well. There wasn’t a whole lot of work that our traps or rotations and things like that we got right and they were able to capitalize on them.”
Along with senior Logan Parker, junior Alex Staples and freshman Matthew Langhi entered the post-game pressroom with Coach Donohoo and were asked how much does playing on the court at Rupp Arena give them a taste of what it’s like to be in this setting and want to get back to this point next year.
“Losing sucks but it definitely fuels me going into the next season”, Staples said. “It’s going to take a lot of hard work and foundation but every bit of it’s worth it. Even though we lost, it’s still an amazing experience and I can’t wait to come back next year.”
“I agree…it’s a very addicting feeling getting here”, Langhi said. “A lot of hard work but it’s definitely worth it.”
Adair County will play Lyon County on Friday at 1:30 eastern time. Lyon County survived their nail-biting opening round game over Ashland Blazer 45-43. The two teams met during the regular season on February 17 when the Lyons won 98-48.
The Marshals finish with a record of 25-8 which is the most wins since the 2013-2014 season.
Marshall County 9 15 12 19 – 55
Adair County 18 13 17 24 – 72
Marshall County (25-8): Alex Staples 13, Matthew Langhi 12, Logan Parker 11, Robertson 9, Isaac Darnall 3, Neyland Jezik 3, Orrin Phelps 2, Kaden Mohler 2
Adair County (29-7): Isaiah Cochran 16, Dawson Gilbert 12, Connor Loy 11, Lane Grant 11, Brayton Coomer 10, Carter White 6, Blane Bardin 6
Marshall County: FG 23/45, 3PT 5/12, FT 4/4 (Staples 4/4), Reb 21
Adair County: FG 28/45, 3PT 9/12, FT 7/12, Reb 21
