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

LOUISVILLE – Marshall County has a long history with the Louisville Invitational Tournament, including two championships and five runner-up finishes. However, the Lady Marshals hadn’t played in the LIT since 2000 before a 60-26 loss Friday against Butler.

“I’m proud of them for going out and working hard,” MCHS head coach Howard Beth said of his players. “Butler’s a better ballclub, but I hope not 34 points better.”

The scoring discrepancy was due in large part to the two teams’ shooting percentages. Butler shot 49 percent (26-for-53), while the Lady Marshals struggled at 18.6 percent (8-for-43).

MCHS never led and only tied the score once at 4-4. A basket by Laken Tabor trimmed an early gap to 8-7, but Butler’s lead grew consistently from there.

Beth said MCHS ran plays well but simply struggled to put the ball through the net.

“Our execution was good enough at times because we were getting open looks,” Beth said. “It’s just different playing this type of talent. You have to hurry your shots a little bit. We got here and found out our passes aren’t sharp enough and we’re not physical enough. That’s why we wanted to come play here.”

Playing one of the top five teams in the state, Beth said expectations of a win were dashed early, but MCHS still had goals it wanted to achieve in the game.

“We both had good looks, but they shot a lot better than we did,” Beth said. “Rebounds and turnovers were even at halftime, so we felt pretty good. We were down big, so we knew the game was over, but we still didn’t do what we wanted to do in the second half.”

Effort was there, but confidence strayed at times for MCHS, Beth said.

“If you’re playing defense all the time and you don’t score when you head the other way down the court, you get down,” Beth said.

In addition, playing with officials who don’t blow whistles as often as 1st Region referees do required an adjustment the Lady Marshals never made, Beth said.

“We kept looking for the foul,” Beth said. “You’ve got to draw the foul up here. We were throwing the ball up and hoping to get a foul or hoping the shot went in rather than stepping up and shooting.”

Beth said playing a tough team in an environment provided by Bellarmine University will help his young, inexperienced club.

“They’re playing better than they had been, but there’s still so much pressure on them,” Beth said. “It was a learning experience that gives things to work on for the next three weeks.”

Of note Friday was junior point guard Jordan Gilland, who played for the first time this season, Gilland missed the last three months due to a back injury. She scored three points in just over 18 minutes of playing time.

“She did a good job,” Beth said. “Conditioning-wise, she’s not there, but I was happy with how she played. She did well for not having played at all this year.”

The addition of Gilland, plus the improved health of several ill players, provided MCHS with more of a bench than it had played with recently.

“We were able to go hard and have kids get tired because we’ve got more people to sub in at two or three places,” Beth said. “It helps when you know you can go hard, get a rest for two or three minutes and go back in.”

Jessica Holder led MCHS with 10 points and nine rebounds, while Ashley Smith had three points and eight rebounds. Karra Fisk added four points and four boards.

The Lady Marshals tipped off a boy-girl doubleheader Tuesday at Graves County. Results were unavailable at press time.

The Lady Marshals return to action Friday at 4th District rival Murray at 6 p.m.


Butler 60,
Marshall County 26
Friday @ Louisville

Marshall County 7 8 4 7
Butler 13 17 12 18

TEAM STATS
Shooting
Overall: MC 18.6% (8/43)
BU 49.1% (26/53)
3-pointers: MC 8.3% (1/12) BU 66.7% (6/9)
Free throws: MC 90% (9/10)
BU 33.3% (2/6)

Turnovers MC 26
BU 13
Rebounds: MC 35 (Holder 9) BU 31 (Hopper 8)
Assists: MC 2 (Gilland/Fisk 1) BU 16 (Gibbs 4)
Blocks: MC 2 (Ellis/Smith 1)
BU 4 (Hopper 3)
Steals: MC 7 (Holder 3)
BU 15 (Gibbs/Hopper
4)
Fouls: MC 8
BU 11
Fouled out: MC - none
BU - none

INDIVIDUAL STATS
MC: Gilland 0-2 (0-1) 3-4 3; Tabor 1-7 (0-3) 2; Thomas 1-4 2; Hall 0-1 (0-1) 0; Ellis 0-2 0; Fisk 2-4 (0-1) 4; Lawson 0-1 2-2 2; Holder 3-14 (0-2) 4-4 10; Smith 1-8 (1-4) 3

BU: Wheat 4-5 (1-1) 9; Pile 3-6 (2-3) 8; Snyder 1-1 2; Pearson 0-2 0; Harris 0-2 0; Bates 1-5 2; Gibbs 9-14 (1-3) 19; Hopper 4-7 1-4 9; Cureton 1-2 (1-1) 3; Reed 3-6 (1-1) 1-2 8