Article and photos by T Ray Henry
On Tuesday, January 13th, the Marshall High School boys basketball team hosted the Crawfordsville (IN) High School Athenians in an interstate battle inside McNary Gymnasium. The two schools were originally scheduled to play one another as part of the Indiana-Illinois Border Battle hosted by South Vermillion High School back in December, but that game was canceled due to inclement weather. The schools got together and scheduled this game to settle the border battle.
Marshall came into the contest with a record of 4-8, coming in off consecutive two-possession losses to Altamont and Olney. Crawfordsville, conversely, came in with a record of 7-3 while riding a five-game winning streak. The Athenians also hold a special place in the history of Indiana High School annals, for in 1911, Crawfordsville won the first-ever state basketball championship in a tournament now known as Hoosier Hysteria.
After Marshall’s Garrett Pugh scored to give the Lions an early 2-0 lead, Crawfordsville went on a 19-1 run to lead Marshall 19-3 with 2:12 to go in the opening quarter. A free throw by Tommy Sheehy accounted for Marshall’s only point during the run. After Marshall head coach Logan Eitel called a full time out, the Lions came out of that timeout playing inspired defense to get stops and transitioning those stops into buckets to creep back into the game. Over the next 6 ½ minutes, the Lions charged all the way back, outscoring the Athenians 20-4 to tie the game at 23 when Payton McGuire splashed a huge three-pointer from up top on the right side as the Marshall faithful erupted and Crawfordsville called for a timeout. From that point on until the end of the first half, though, the Athenians scored 9 unanswered points to take a 32-23 lead at the break.
With Marshall inbounding the ball to begin the second half, the Lions worked the ball around on the right side of the floor from Payton McGuire to Liam Keim. Keim then passed the ball crosscourt to Tucker Osborn, who passed it out to Garrett Pugh on the left side up top behind the three-point arc. Pugh dialed it in and sank a three-pointer for Marshall to get back within six points with the score 32-26. The Lions changed up their defensive assignments in the second half, moving Payton McGuire and Liam Keim to the perimeter to guard Crawfordsville’s scoring tandem of Mason McCarty and Johnovan Smith. Throughout the second half, McGuire and Keim locked in on their assignments and made the visitors look to other scorers for points.
Crawfordsville increased their lead back up to ten points with the score 36-26 before Garrett Pugh took a pass from Liam Keim as he was sprinting down the right side of the lane. Pugh caught the pass and went up and scored to get the Lions within eight. After the Lions got a stop on the defensive end, Leim once again passed the ball to Pugh, this time on an inbounds play, and Pugh turned and scored inside to cut the deficit to six with the score 36-30 as the clock ticked just to under six minutes to go in the third quarter.
After another big stop by the Lions defense, Payton McGuire dribbled the ball up the floor and put pressure on the Athenians defense. Drawing three players in yellow to him, McGuire dished the ball down low on the left side to Bryce Griguhn, who scored at the rim to cut Crawfordsville’s lead to four with the score 36-32. A free throw by Garrett Pugh soon made it a one-possession game, and after another tough stop on defense, Payton McGuire drove past the defense and scored at the rim as he was fouled. After he sank the free throw for the traditional three-point play, McGuire leveled the score at 36 with 2:37 to go on the clock in the third.
Crawfordsville went ahead 38-36 on a basket by Mason McCarty, but the Lions responded when, after a scramble for the ball, Payton McGuire drilled a three-point shot from the left baseline for Marshall to take a 39-38 lead with under a minute to go in the quarter. After Crawfordsville’s next shot wouldn’t fall, Marshall went up by three 41-38 when Payton McGuire scored at the rim. Crawfordsville held the ball for the final shot in the quarter, but the shot at the buzzer was a short, and the Lions took a 41-38 lead into the final eight minutes of play. In the third quarter, Marshall’s defense held the Athenians to just six total points.
In the fourth quarter, Crawfordsville scored the first five points of the stanza to take a 43-41 lead before Marshall’s Bryce Griguhn scored at the rim to tie the game at 43. After the Lions held strong on defense once again, they came back up the floor and held the ball for over a minute and a half. With the Lions working the ball well with motion on offense along the perimeter, the ball eventually went down low to Bryce Griguhn, who put up a shot. Griguhn followed his own shot and grabbed the offensive rebound, then when he went back up he was fouled. Griguhn sank both free throws to give Marshall a 45-43 lead with 2:55 to go in the game.
After a Crawfordsville shot fell off the rim, Payton McGuire was fouled, and he sank both free throws with 1:44 left to make it 47-43 in favor of Marshall. Down the stretch, the Lions hit 10 free throws in the final three minutes of the game. Crawfordsville never got closer than four points until the last shot of the contest, and when the final buzzer sounded, the Lions came away with a hard fought and well-earned 55-52 win over the Athenians. With the win, Marshall moves to 5-8 on the season, while Crawfordsville falls to 7-4.
Payton McGuire led Marshall with 27 points. He also finished with 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and a blocked shot as he played stifling defense throughout the second half. Garrett Pugh finished the night with 13 points, 6 rebounds, one assist and a steal, while Bryce Griguhn had 6 points to go along with 5 rebounds. Zach Jones has 5 points and 4 rebounds, and Tommy Sheehy had 4 points and 3 rebounds. Liam Keim and Tucker Osborn did not score, but they were vital to the team’s success tonight with their defense and rebounding.
In the junior varsity game, Marshall played Crawfordsville’s JV team even for the entire game before falling by three 40-37. Leading the Marshall JV team in scoring was Tommy Sheehy with 10 points. Brady Landrus had 7 points, Zach Jones 6, and Cage Stuckey and Ethan Sumner each had 4. Reed Ramey and Lennon Jennings rounded out the scoring for the JV squad with three points apiece.
Marshall returns to action this Friday when the Lions travel to the west side of the county to take on Casey-Westfield in a tripleheader (Boys JV, Girls Varsity, Boys Varsity) beginning at 5:00 PM.
