Coming into Tuesday’s game against McCracken County, the Lady Marshals have won 16 of the 19 games the two teams have played since 2013. Two of those three have come under fourth-year Head Coach Scott Sivills. Sivills and the Lady Mustangs picked up their fourth win in program history over the Lady Marshals on Tuesday 56-34.
“Give them a lot of credit…they came out and were better than us tonight”, Coach Aaron Beth said. “We’ve got to get better, we’ve got to have more people that can score the basketball.”
McCracken County led 21-12 at the end of the first quarter which is the total number of points they scored in last year’s 1st Region Championship loss to the Lady Marshals. The Lady Mustangs full court pressure in the first half produced several turnovers they capitalized on at the other end.
Their defensive efforts paid off in the second quarter, holding the Lady Marshals to five points – a basket by Halle Langhi and 3-pointer from Skylar Waller – to lead by 20 points at halftime, 37-17.
“We take pride in our defense, and they were 14-for-19 from the floor at halftime”, Beth said. “We can’t give up offensive rebounds…that led to seven points in the first half, and we gave up live ball turnovers which means wide open layups. Well, they’re going to make those shots and they’re going to shoot a high percentage.”
Waller came up with a turnover and took it to the other end to score the opening bucket of the second half but the Lady Mustangs went on to out-score the Lady Marshals 15-9 to lead 52-26 at the end of the third quarter.
They held McCracken County to four fourth quarter points in the 22-point loss.
“We’ve got two months to get ready, so we’re going to get back to work and we’ve got to be ready Friday night because Henderson’s a really good team”, Beth said looking forward.
Langhi led the Lady Marshals with 15 points and 13 rebounds and Waller finished with 13 points. Three players in double figures led McCracken County starting with 15 points from junior Destiny Thomas, 11 points by sophomore Claire Johnson and 10 from senior Shymiya Daye.
Marshall 12 5 9 8 – 34
McCracken 21 16 15 4 – 56
Marshall: Langhi 15, Waller 13, Driver 3, Northcott 3
McCracken: Thomas 15, Johnson 11, Daye 10, Sivills 9, Buchanan 8, Green 3
Marshall: FG 13/41, 3 PT 5/16 (Waller 3), FT 3/7, REB 25 (Langhi 13)
Record: Marshall 9-2, McCracken 13-1
