The Marshals celebrate with the district tournament championship trophy.
MURRAY – Top-seeded Marshall County won the Fourth District basketball tournament championship Friday night at Tiger Gym, but not without getting a stubborn fight from Calloway County.
The Marshals on 57-52, improving to 29-2 and moving into First Region tournament play as the clear-cut favorite to repeat their title from a year ago.
But Calloway conceded nothing. The Lakers took an early 7-0 lead and even though the Marshals rallied to lead 13-11 at the first quarter stop and built a lead of as much as eight points down the stretch in the final period, the youthful challenges never quit trying.
Calloway closed to within three at 53-50 with 34 seconds to play. Then Marshal got two free throws from Cole Nelson and the Lakers got a pair of charity tosses of their own from freshman Parker Adams, who topped all scorers with 17 points, to make it 55-52 with 12 seconds left.
The Marshals finished it off with two more free throws, these from Chase York.
The Lakers, who lost two regular-season games to Marshall County, finished 11-19. They also advance to the regional tournament next week.
Look for district tournament coverage all week in the online edition of the Trib and comprehensive coverage, plus a regional tournament preview, in Tuesday’s print edition.
