A Second District No. 1 seed was secured Friday night on the girls side of action as the McCracken County Lady Mustangs avenged a previous loss to the Paducah Tilghman Lady Blue Tornado with a 59-45 win. While on the boys side of the doubleheader, the Blue Tornado stole the immediate No. 1 seed from the Mustangs, leaving that decision to come at a later date after a 74-55 win for Tilghman.
LADY MUSTANGS 59, LADY TORNADO 45
The Lady Mustangs not only secured the No. 1 district seed with their victory, they also avenged a defeat to Tilghman just two weeks earlier. What was a 52-34 outcome that night was flipped on its head Friday night, although the win didn’t come easy.
It was a back-and-forth game from the start as McCracken only held an 11-7 lead after the first frame. The Lady Mustangs had plenty of opportunities to rack that score up significantly in the early minutes, but rushed play led to mistakes that kept the score low.
The second quarter was where they came alive with Ava Hughes adding five of her eventual game-high 24 points.
Overall it was a well-rounded night for the victors as six different Lady Mustangs found the bottom of the net.
At the halftime break McCracken held a comfortable 31-15 lead, but Tilghman would kick it into high gear in the third.
Starting with a fast break layup by Tilghman junior Myiesha Smith which would ultimately be her 1,000th career point, would spur significant energy for the Lady Tornado. Smith would tally 13 points alone in the third quarter on her way to a 24-point night to tie Hughes.
Heading into the fourth, Tilghman had cut the deficit to 42-32, but another 17-point quarter from McCracken County would trump the 11 from Tilghman to lead to the 59-45 final score.
Ashley Word would join the double-digit scorers with Hughes as she added 12, Arriannia Brison would add seven as did Brooklin Preston, Reagan Hill added six and Madeline Ault added three.
For Tilghman MaKeyah Carruthers added 10 points, with Victoria Wheeler adding four, Hailyn Hughes added three, while Ja’mya Shumpert and Riley Pulley each added two.
BLUE TORNADO 74, MUSTANGS 55
A dominant second half filled with a plethora of 3-pointers would ultimately be the difference in the boys game. After holding the Mustangs scoreless in the final five minutes of the first half, they came out 7-0 run to take the 29-24 lead and never looked back.
“It was a close game at halftime and we just weren’t getting the stops that we wanted to,” Paducah Tilghman senior Owen Mikel said. “Coach said that if we could go out and get three stops in a row and three baskets that would put us in a good position for the rest of the game.”
And that’s exactly what they did.
That 7-0 run was spurred by an up and under from freshman Avery Thompson to tie the game 24-24. Mikel would take the lead with a fast break layup and would double down with a 3-point dagger.
Mikel would nail three triples in the third quarter alone on his eventual 18-point night. Miles Woodfork would also come alive in the third, contributing nine of his 20 points in the third frame alone.
“We came out and really started defending well. That would lead to our shots starting to fall, we built a good lead and we didn’t let it fall,” Mikel said. “It was just a good game overall in the second half, we just came out and played hard.”
The first half was halted for a moment on a solemn note as McCracken County Carter Hawes was pulled from the game and ultimately the building after suffering a hard fall, knocking him unconscious. He would come to and get to his feet with some help and was escorted from the building with an array of applause from both fan bases to show support to the Mustang junior.
While several Blue Tornado found their momentum in the second, McCracken County’s Garrett Miller would find momentum of his own in the fourth quarter. He would score eight of his nine total points in the final frame thanks to a scrappy defense that poked balls free and led to fast break layups in the final minutes of action.
Ultimately the four Blue Tornado that reached double-digit scoring would be too much for the Mustangs. Woodfork would lead with 20, Mikel added his 18, Ahmad Wilkins added 14 and Josh Campbell had 11.
For McCracken, Dylan Jackson led with 10 points as he found most of his success in the first half of action. Miller followed with nine, as did Maxx Tanner, Caden Fulcher had seven and Aaron Adams had six.
The Mustangs won’t see anymore district opponents until the tournament, leaving them with a 3-2 district record. Tilghman will take on St. Mary on February 11 on the road. If the Blue Tornado win that one they will earn the No. 1 seed, if the Vikings win the three schools will end in a 3-2 draw.
“This puts us in a good position for district play and we really want that No. 1 seed,” Mikel said. “We want to go into St. Mary in a few weeks and beat them.”