A classic doubleheader between McCracken County and Murray at Taylor Gymnasium Tuesday night displayed two very different basketball games. The opener came easily as the Lady Mustangs defeated the Lady Tigers 52-23 while the boys game came down to the wire with the Mustangs ultimately walking away with a 33-32 victor.y
Mustangs and Tigers come down to the wire
If recent history has proven anything about boys basketball games between McCracken County and Murray, it’s that the game will almost always go down to the wire. That was once again proven correct Tuesday night as the Mustangs walked away from a narrow 33-32 victory over the Tigers.
Scoring was a rare commodity for most of the night as defenses on both sides of the court stood stout, ready to stop the other at every turn, an attribute of the game that McCracken County head coach Dustin Roberts attributes to strong basketball cultures at both schools.
“There’s good tradition at both schools and both teams just have really good players,” Roberts said. “There are tough-nosed, defensive minded players on both sides and it always makes for a fistfight in this game. Nothing is given easy in these games.”
And nothing came easy all night long.
What would be the final game-winning basket of the night even came in the form of a tough spin move between an ambush of Tigers in the paint. Freshman Jay Martin danced his way between them for a layup with just 4.1 seconds on the clock, taking the 33-32 lead.
Murray would have two attempts at an inbound pass, the first knocked three seconds off the clock before a Tiger timeout and with just 1.5 second remaining, a second attempt would yield no fruit as the pass came up out of reach to end the game.
“He (Jay Martin) grows every day,” Roberts said. “We have a very young team and every day in practice you see those young guys taking steps and they come out here and do things like this. Our guys are tough. They have proven that they can win and these young guys are taking advantage of these opportunities in practice and in games and making things happen.”
Martin had the last second layup and a 3-pointer as just the second bucket of the night for a five-point performance. That three would help the Mustangs to a 5-0 early lead that saw just a 7-2 score after the first quarter of play.
The second quarter was much of the same as shots just wouldn’t fall for either team. Zavion Carman and Jeremiah Jones would have some success to help the Tigers to a nine-point quarter, but eight from McCracken with a strong showing from Jackson Klope kept the deficit in favor of the Mustangs, 15-11.
Murray would take over in the third, starting the frame with a 10-2 run courtesy of a pair of 3-pointers from Drew May with Klope free throws mixed in. The Tigers would take a 26-20 lead heading into the final frame thanks to a 15-point quarter from the home team
Senior Lincoln English would make it an eight-point game to start the fourth as and-one opportunities for English and Klope fell off the mark. Owen Grogan would make things interesting, nailing a corner three with 5:50 on the clock to cut the deficit to 29-27 and answer with a layup over a minute later to tie the game 29-29 with 4:44 to go.
That tied score would hold for just over two minutes before Carman would hit a free throw to take the one-point edge. He would double down with a fast break layup to take a 32-29 lead with 1:37 to play. A layup from Klope would cut the deficit to 32-31 leading to that final sequence.
Klope led all scorers with 13 points followed by seven from Grogan and five from Martin. Grayson Parish added four with Caden Fulcher and Dylan Jackson added two each. For Murray, Carman led with nine followed by English with seven and May with six. Aiden Armstrong followed with four while Jeremiah Jones and Harris Moore each added three.
McCracken County (21-7) has just one more game left in the regular season, they will take on Marshall County (18-6) at home on Friday night. Murray (21-8) will take on Carlisle County (18-9) on the road also on Friday to cap off their regular season.
Speed makes all the difference in Lady Mustangs victory
The McCracken County Lady Mustangs played a game of fast-paced transition basketball Tuesday night, handing the Murray Lady Tigers a 52-23 loss on their senior night. A perfect first quarter where the Lady Mustangs rallied for 19 points while holding their opponents scoreless all but sealed the deal.
Relying on shooting wasn’t much of a worry for the McCracken County as point after point came courtesy of fast break layups. The speed of star senior Claire Johnson was the catalyst for many of those transition buckets as she controlled 12 of those early 19 points.
“Within the culture of our team defense is one of our main staples of our program,” McCracken County head coach Scott Sivills said. “We feel like we really need to turn things up towards the end of the year and I felt like we did a really good job getting deflections into steals, into scores there in the first half.”
The saving grace for the Lady Tigers came in the form of a free throw by senior Makira Bomar with 5:30 to play in the second quarter to end the 25-point blitz from McCracken. Add a pair of three’s from eighth graders Mayla Smith and Reagan Ballard and the Lady Tigers would secure a 7-point second quarter.
While their defense wasn’t perfect, it was good enough to lead to plenty more transition baskets for the Lady Mustangs as they would post another 13 points in the second with eighth grader Ava Hughes stepping up for a 3-pointer, one of two for her on the night.
“I thought Ava (Hughes) shot the ball really well,” Sivills said. “We had to have shots from her and from Jayden Skaggs. That’s the things about thing about this game, when a team throws you jump defense and we’ve seen that all year, we’ve got to put the ball in the basket, and we had kids put the ball in the basket tonight.”
Shooting became more prevelant in the second half as Skaggs connected on for a corner 3-pointer to match a deep ball from Mylee Smith. The senior Smith led the Lady Tigers with nine points, all from long range in the second half of play.
Her second half performance would help lead to a 10-point quarter for the Lady Tigers after McCracken posted another 16-point quarter on them in the third.
Murray closed out the night playing like they truly had nothing to lose, stepping up their defensive pressure and holding the Lady Mustangs to just four points against their own 10. In the end, that defense would come too little, too late as the clock wound down to a 52-23 final score.
Behind the 24 points from Johnson came 10 from Hughes, five from Skaggs, four from Reagan Hill and two from Mikee Buchanan. Behind the nine from Smith for Murray, Mayla Smith added seven, Ballard had five, while Bomar and Addison Neal each had a free throw.
McCracken County (21-4) has four games left on their regular season schedule as they prepare to host Marshall County (19-6) on Friday night. Murray (7-14) has three games left as they will hit the road Friday night to take on Carlisle County (14-8).