Marshals clinch top district seed

Gillespie wins 200th game head coach

By Justin McGill
Tribune-Courier Managing Editor
jmcgill@tribunecourier.com

MURRAY – Friday night was historic in at least two ways for the Marshall County Marshals. One, the Marshals clinched outright the top seed in the 4th District Tournament with a 69-54 win over Murray. Two, MCHS head coach Gus GIllespie notched his 200th career win as a head coach.

Gillespie said he had no idea how close he was to 200 wins until associate coach Ron Winemiller told him a few weeks ago.

“I’ve had a lot of good players, and good players make good records,” Gillespie said. “The credit goes to the kids. The good part of tonight’s win is that it takes our district tournament fate out of Calloway County and Murray’s hands. The last couple of years, that first round against Murray has been a tough game. To avoid that really brings some relief.”

It appeared early that the Marshals would run away with the game without receiving much fight from Murray. MCHS scored the first 14 points of the game and didn’t allow the Tigers on the board until a three-point play by Chastin Sheppard with 2:48 left in the first quarter.

MCHS closed the quarter on a 10-3 run capped by a Travis Spiceland three-pointer at the buzzer, putting the Marshals ahead 28-10. The gap hovered near that 18-point mark throughout the second quarter until another long-distance buzzer-beater by Spiceland gave the Marshals a 47-26 halftime advantage.

“I was glad that we started with such great focus,” Gillespie said. “That was key for us.”

The importance of that fast start was quickly evident in the third quarter as the Tigers opened the frame with a 10-4 run.

“We played very good in the first half, but we were sluggish in the third quarter,” Gillespie said. “With high school kids, it’s hard to get them up again when they’re ahead 20 points at halftime. It’s almost like a curse sometimes.”

However, Gillespie said his players responded well after opening the second half slowly.

“Once we realized we’d have to fight for it, we did some good things,” Gillespie said. Every time they got within 13 or 14 points, it seemed like we came up with a big rebound and hit a big shot. The one thing I think we did well that changed the course of the game was we pushed the basketball. That’s what we have to do. I want teams to be worried about us pushing the ball. It really was the difference tonight.”

Spiceland led all players with 22 points, and Gillespie said the senior guard’s contributions were made larger by the foul trouble of starting point guard Scott McKenty.

“They’re both combination guards, and when you take one of them out, it affects the team a little bit,” Gillespie said. “Scott never got in the flow of this game, but it was nice to see that we played well and did a lot of good things without our true point guard on the floor.”

MCHS hosted Heath on Tuesday (results unavailable at press time) and end the regular season with two more home games – Friday against Mayfield and next Thursday against Christian County – before hosting the 4th District Tournament.

“It’s going to be challenging, but it’s nice to know that our next five games will be at home,” Gillespie said. “That will help.”

Marshall County 69,
Murray High 54
Friday @ Murray

Marshall County 28 19 12 10
Murray High 10 16 20 8

TEAM STATS
Shooting
Overall: MC 55.8% (24/43)
MH 32.6% (15/46)
3-pointers: MC 46.7% (7/15) MH 30.4% (7/23)
Free throws: MC 60.9% (14/23)
MH 63% (17/27)

Turnovers MC 12
MH 11
Rebounds: MC 30 (Spiceland/Madding/Holland 5)
MH 29 (Volp 12)
Assists: MC 15 (Holland 4)
MH 10 (Hurt 4)
Blocks: MC 0
MH 1
Steals: MC 6
MH 7 (Gibson 3)
Fouls: MC 21
MH 20
Fouled out: MC - Dowdy, McKenty
MH - none

INDIVIDUAL STATS
MC: Dowdy (2-2) 4; Spiceland 5-10 (4-7) 8-10 22; Barga 4-5 1-3 9; McKenty 2-6 1-2 5; Madding 4-6 (1-3) 1-2 10; York 2-4 (1-2) 5; Johnson 1-1 (1-1) 3; Seay 1-4 2; Holland 3-5 3-6 9

MH: Gibson 1-5 2; Hurt 3-13 (3-8) 2-2 11; Trice 1-7 (1-5) 2-6 5; Darnall 2-5 (2-3) 6; Volp 2-4 7-8 11; Duffy 1-4 (1-2) 3; Shepperd 4-4 3-3 11; Jones 1-4 3-8 5