Patriots playing in state tourney this week
The Marshall Academy Patriots placed fourth in the Class 3A North Regional Tournament last week. Next up is the Class 3A Division II State Tournament at Kirk Academy.
MA got a win over TriCounty Academy and then fell to both West Memphis Christian and Rossville Christian in the North event, played at Oak Hill Academy in West Point. They next faced Columbia Academy on Tuesday night of this week in the state tourney at Grenada. With a win over Columbia, they will play in the Class 3A, Division II title contest Friday at 6:15 p.m. Versus either Rossville or Bowling Green.
The Patriots opened North State competition with a hard-fought 46-41 win over TriCounty. Scoring in double digits were Carlos Young with 16, Makhi Findley with 14 and Kaleb Luse with 10. Luse also had 14 rebounds and six blocks.
Marshall trailed 22-19 at intermission but outscored the Rebels 27-19 in the second half.
“It was a big win after being able to have one practice in 10 days (due to the ice storm),” said head coach Jeff Dalton.
The Patriots got off to rough start in the semi-finals Friday versus West Memphis and dropped a 73-41 decision.
MA was down 17-1 at the end of the opening quarter.
“It was the worst start to a game for us all year,” Dalton said. “We got called for five touch fouls in the first three minutes and just never could get started.”
Young scored 19 points in the loss.
The Patriots then lost 64-42 to rival Rossville on Saturday. The two teams had split in the regular season.
Marshall fell behind 36-23 at halftime and got outscored 20-6 by the Wolves in the third quarter.
Findley was MA’s top scorer with 18 points. Leading Rossville were Seth Williams with 27 and Dallas Freeman with 17.
The Patriots entered the Class 3A Division II State Tournament with a 19-8 record.
The Marshall Academy Lady Patriots saw their season come to an end in the opening round of the Class 3A North Regional Tournament last week. They lost 38-27 to Washington School and finished the season with a 17-12 record.