Rubber match scheduled for Feb. 1 at Paducah

By Caitlin Wardlow
Tribune-Courier Reporter

METROPOLIS, Ill. – If the Marshals could have won Saturday’s game against Paducah Tilghman on effort alone, they would have walked home with the 25th Annual Superman Classic Championship trophy Saturday night.

However, taking second place behind the Blue Tornado was something the Marshals did respectfully and gracefully. Tilghman outscored MCHS 66-62 by the end of 32 minutes of some intense high school basketball.

“We just missed some eash shots in the first half,” said MCHS head coach Gus Gillespie, returning to coaching full-time for the first time since his son Gunner began treatment for a brain tumor in December. “It’s 4-2 and they can’t score and we can’t score. It’s a big-time game and no one really comes out in that type of contest hitting shot after shot after shot.”

Thirty seconds into the game, Jamie Dowdy’s first attempt at a basket was no good. However, after Tilghman rebounded, Scott McKenty made the steal and the ball got to Cory York, who shot a field goal and got the Marshals their first two points.

No one scored for the next four minutes. After a Tilghman foul and two made free throws by the Marshals urged Tilghman to put some numbers on the board, the first quarter ended with the game tied 7-7.

Travis Spiceland opened up the second quarter with an attempted field goal that turned into two made free throws. Tilghman kept the score tied with another field goal, but less than 30 seconds later, Spiceland shot a three-pointer that pushed the Marshals ahead 12-9.

The first half was littered with fouls which were pretty evenly distributed between the two teams, the result of two teams playing hard, Gillespie said.

“Anytime you play hard, you’re going to have fouls and it’s going to be ugly,” Gillespie said.

The Marshals entered the second half down 25-24, but York made a field goal to give MCHS the lead again.

Tilghman then scored twice in a row, with one shot being a dunk that sent Tornado fans to their feet cheering. Spiceland sunk a three-point field goal to tie the game at 29-29 which, in turn, sent Marshal fans to their feet.

Spiceland was 6-for-10 from behind the arc Saturday night and shot a nearly-perfect 7-for-8 from the free throw line.

“[Spiceland’s] had three monster games in a row [against Tilghman] when you look at the [1st Region] final last year, the game at Tilghman earlier and then this game,” Gillespie said. “He’s averaged about 30 points a game on them the last three games. He’s just really played well in this tournament.”

With less than 30 seconds to go in the third quarter, Tilghman made a two-point field goal that put them ahead 46-45. Then, Josh Madding hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to send the Marshals into the fourth quarter ahead 48-46.

Despite all the hard work and effort MCHS put into trying to win the championship game, Tilghman shot at about 53 percent, enough to beat out the Marshals’ 34.5 percent.

With about a minute and a half left in the game, the Marshals started to foul Tilghman, hoping to improve their score due to Tilghman’s somewhat mediocre free throw shooting.

This tactic worked for awhile as the Marshals came within two points of the lead twice. Although the defense MCHS was playing was pretty remarkable, they had a hard time getting the ball to go in offensively.

Despite the 66-62 loss, Gillespie was happy with the way the game turned out.

“I’m proud of us,” Gillespie said. “We did a lot of good things, out-rebounded them, only had nine turnovers and shot free throws well.”

The Marshals made it to the championship game at the Superman Classic by defeating Massac County 58-30 last Monday night and defeating Marion, Ill. 79-68 Friday night.

The Marshals started off slow against Marion and after several failed basket atempts by MCHS, the Wildcats were quickly up 4-0. But after a steal by McKenty and a field goal by Spiceland, the Marshals were on the board.

The Wildcats kept the lead during the first quarter and after two field goals by Holland and McKenty in a row, the Marshals had their first lead of the game at 23-22 two minutes into the second quarter.

Many of MCHS’ points against Marion at the end of the game came from free throw shooting and boosted their shooting percentage to 83.3 percent.


Marshall County 79,
Marion, Ill. 68
Friday @ Metropolis

Marshall County 7 17 24 14
Marion 7 18 21 22

TEAM STATS
Shooting
Overall: MC 54.5% (24/44)
MA 47.7% (21/44)
3-pointers: MC 33.3% (6/18) MA 41.2% (7/17)
Free throws: MC 83.3% (25/30)
MA 76% (16/25)

Turnovers MC 13
MA 16
Rebounds: MC 26 (Dowdy 5)
MA 24 (Woods 10)
Assists: MC 9 (Fletcher 3)
MA 11 (Richert 4)
Blocks: MC 1 (Barga)
MA 2
Steals: MC 10 (McKenty 5)
MA 5 (Knight 3)
Fouls: MC 21
MA 22
Fouled out: MC - none
MA - Borum, Frerking

INDIVIDUAL STATS
MC: Dowdy (2-2) 1-2 5; Spiceland 9-15 (3-6) 6-6 27; Barga 1-2 2-2 4; McKenty 4-8 (1-4) 2-2 11; Madding 0-4 8-8 8; York 3-8 (2-5) 3-4 11; Seay 1-1 3-4 5; Fletcher 1-1 2; Holland 3-3 0-2 6

MA: Borum 1-3 1-2 3; Whitlock 4-6 (1-3) 9; James 1-3 7-8 9; Knight 5-10 (4-6) 4-5 18; Woods 7-12 (1-3) 15; Richert 1-4 (1-4) 3; Frerking 1-3 1-4 3; Montgomery 1-2 6-6 8


Paducah Tilghman 66,
Marshall County 62
Saturday @ Metropolis

Marshall County 7 17 24 14
Paducah Tilgh. 7 18 21 22

TEAM STATS
Shooting
Overall: MC 34.5% (20/58)
PT 54.3% (25/46)
3-pointers: MC 33.3% (9/27) PT 44.4% (4/9)
Free throws: MC 81.3% (13/16)
PT 51.8% (14/27)

Turnovers MC 9
PT 10
Rebounds: MC 34 (Seay 8)
PT 32 (McClure 13)
Assists: MC 6 (Holland 3)
PT 9 (Wright 3)
Blocks: MC 1 (Seay)
PT 4 (McClure 2)
Steals: MC 9 (Spiceland/Barga/
McKenty 2)
PT 2
Fouls: MC 21
PT 16
Fouled out: MC - York
PT - none

INDIVIDUAL STATS
MC: Spiceland 8-15 (6-10) 7-8 29; Dowdy 1-4 2; McKenty 0-9 2-2 2; Madding 2-7 (1-4) 5; York 5-11 (2-6) 2-2 14; Johnson 2-4 4; Seay 2-3 1-2 5; Holland 0-3 1-2 1

PT: Williams 1-3 (1-1) 1-2 4; Coughenour 1-1 2; Wright 4-7 (3-5) 1-2 12; Hazard 1-3 2; Forrest 1-2 ; Perry 7-13 8-11 22; McClure 9-14 4-9 22