Article and Photos by T Ray Henry
The Marshall High School girls basketball team played the Newton High School Lady Eagles in the consolation championship game of the Little Illini Conference Tournament at McNary Gymnasium on the campus of Marshall High School on Thursday, January 22nd. Both squads came in after falling in the opening round of the tournament then rebounding in the consolation semifinal round. Newton was seeded fourth in the tournament, but they lost to lower-seeded Robinson in the tournament’s opening round. The Lady Eagles then routed Casey-Westfield to advance to the consolation bracket’s title game. Marshall, seeded seventh, was defeated by #2 Mount Carmel in the tournament’s opening round, then they rebounded by avenging an earlier loss by beating Lawrenceville in the semifinal round of the consolation bracket to set up tonight’s matchup with Newton. Newton is currently ranked in the top 40 in class 2A by MaxPreps, while Marshall, which was ranked 105th just 10 days ago, has moved up 33 slots to #72 in Class 2A. During that span, Marshall has won five of their last six games.
In the opening quarter, Marshall got an inside bucket from Lynn Welborn, but Newton responded with 13 points to go ahead 13-2. Newton was determined on defense to deny Welborn the ball inside while hounding Lions ballhandlers. The Lady Eagles got steals and breakaway buckets to go ahead 21-10 after one quarter of play.
The Lions had difficulty with the speed and defensive pressure of Newton as they fell behind by 20 points with the score 32-12. Over the final 3 ½ minutes of the first half, though, Marshall came storming back into it by outscoring Newton 14-4 to close the gap at the halftime break to 36-26 when Harper Richardson jumped a passing lane, made a great steal, then she outraced the Newton five as well as the clock to score on a breakaway right before the buzzer.
In the third quarter, Newton again built a big lead before the Lions came right back as Ella Mattas hit three three-pointers on her way to scoring 11 points in the stanza. When Newton had to come out and guard the perimeter, Lynn Welborn and McKenzie Davis scored four buckets inside as the Lions were down by just six points two separate times. Unfortunately, that’s as close as the team could get as they ran out of gas fighting their way back time after time. The Lions could only generate five points as a team in the final quarter, and when the clock ran out, Marshall lost the game by the score of 68-54. With the Lions winning the consolation bracket’s runner-up spot, they finished the LIC Tournament in a higher place than their seeding, which is a positive success moving forward to the final weeks of the regular season.
Ella Mattas scored 18 points to lead the Lions, while Lynn Welborn and Marlee Heighton each scored 12. Harper Richardson finished with 6 points, McKenzie Davis had 4 points, and Caitlyn Hilliard had 2 points.
Marshall (10-8) returns to regular season action next Monday, January 26th when the squad hosts Newton for a rematch of tonight’s game inside McNary Gymnasium. Junior Varsity action is set to begin at 6:00 PM, with the varsity game to follow.
Statistics:
Newton stats
Davis- 4pts, 2 rebs
Heighton- 12pts, 3 rebs, 5 asst, 4 steals, 2 blocks
A. Ross - 2pts, 7 rebs, 2 asst, 1 steal
L. Ross - 3 rebs
Welborn - 12pts, 1 reb, 2 asst, 3 steals
Mattas - 18pts, 6 rebs, 3 asst, 2 steals
Richardson - 4pts, 3 rebs, 3 asst, 5 steals
Ella Mattas drained a career-high five three-pointers against Newton while leading the Lions in scoring
McKenzie Davis banks home this shot in the LIC Tournament vs Newton
Addy Ross puts up a shot for Marshall against Newton in the LIC Tournament