A 55-40 win over Covington Holmes Friday in the PBI Bank Danny Annis Classic at Ohio County, gave the Marshals second place after going 2-1 in the round robin with a win over Ohio County and overtime loss to Warren Central.
Skyler Smith followed up his five threes against Warren Central by opening the game with one and another three from Aaron Reed gave the Marshals an early 6-0 lead. Raavia Commodore scored the first two points for Holmes and a 3-pointer by Kerez Race made it an 8-5 game. Nolan Nichols, Matt French and a three by Bryce Flatt finished out the first quarter on a 7-0 run to lead 15-5.
Holmes put together their own 7-0 run to start the second quarter, cutting the Marshals lead to three points before the run was stopped on a free throw by Austin Riley. Leading 23-17, a personal and technical foul on Race sent the Marshals to the free throw line, hitting two of four. Reed scored the final three points for the Marshals to end the first half leading 28-20.
Nearly half of the third quarter elapsed before either team scored, the first basket from Reed followed by a free throw by Lucas Nichols to lead by 11 points. James Gaither’s three for Holmes later in the quarter cut the Marshals lead to eight and the Bulldogs cut it to six heading into the fourth quarter.
Holmes pulled to within three points once again to start the fourth quarter but would get no closer. The Marshals scored the next eight points to lead 44-32, taking their largest lead of 18 points late in the quarter and getting the win by 15 points at the final buzzer.
Reed led the Marshals with 19 points earning Most Valuable Player of the game. The Marshals improve to 8-4 following their success during the holiday break and will play their next game at home on Tuesday against Cairo, IL.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | Final | |
| Marshall County | 15 | 28 | 36 | 55 |
| Covington Holmes | 5 | 20 | 30 | 40 |
SCORING
Marshall: Reed 19, Smith 9, Powell 8, Flatt 6, Riley 4, French 4, Nichols 3, Morgan 2
Holmes: Commodore 8 Race 7, Gaither 6, Saxon 6, Miller 5, Foster 4, Sterling 2, Dozier 2