Marshall’s Drew DeVine goes for his rebond against Chatlotte in Tuesday evening’s game.
Marshall’s Jaylin Alexander (5) goes for a layup against Chatlotte in Tuesday evening’s game.
Marshall’s Jacob Brubaker (10) looks to pass against Chatlotte in Tuesday evening’s game.
Marshall’s T.J. Rocco (15) goes for the hoop against Chatlotte in Tuesday evening’s game.
Marshall’s Forrest Jackson drives to the hoop against Chatlotte in Tuesday evening’s game.
Marshall’s Tyler Torrey goes for the hoop against Chatlotte in Tuesday evening’s game.
Marshall’s Cam Face (23) takes his shot against Chatlotte in Tuesday evening’s game.
Marshall’s Forrest Jackson (4) takes a shot against Chatlotte in Tuesday evening’s game.
Heading into Tuesday’s action, there was a four-way tie for first place in the Interstate 8 Conference.
And Marshall was heading into a stretch of games where the Redhawks were going to play all three of the first place teams they were tied with over the next three games.
“It’s a tough stretch – Charlotte, Harper and Coldwater – we’ve been looking at this stretch for awhile now and we figured by the time it was over we’d have a real good idea of who we are,” Marshall coach Nicholas Dent said.
Marshall’s Jacob Brubaker (10) looks to pass against Chatlotte in Tuesday evening’s game.
After the first game of Marshall’s ‘tough stretch’, what the Redhawks found out was that they were still a first place team. Marshall defeated Charlotte, 82-78, in overtime in this boys’ basketball Interstate 8 Conference game at Marshall on Tuesday.
Marshall improves to 7-2 overall and goes to 4-1 in the league to stay in first place in the Interstate 8. Charlotte drops to 3-2 in the league. Harper Creek also lost on Tuesday with Coldwater winning. So now Marshall is in a two-way tie for first with a Coldwater team it will see on Jan. 29.
This was the second game for Charlotte since its head coach Steve Ernst resigned and the team dealt with a controversial week in which there were community protests about the program. Despite player demands that Ernst coach against Pennfield last Friday, the school’s athletic director coached that game. Against Marshall, the former junior varsity coach Tyler Bartolacci led the varsity team.
Marshall had to use an extra period to get the victory against Charlotte on this night as the two teams were tied at 70-70 after regulation. The Redhawks then jumped on Charlotte early in the overtime and held the Orioles off for the win.
“Any I-8 win is a big win, and Charlotte is a good team, so we are super excited to get it done,” Dent said. “We had to do it the hard way, but we found a way to close it out.”
In the overtime, Marshall was first able to stretch on the lead after a 3-pointer by Jacob Brubaker made it 75-50 with 2:10 left in the extra period. Brubaker then hit two key free throws to keep the lead at more than a field goal at 80-76 with :17 remaining to close out the win, before the two teams exchanged late baskets.
Brubaker led Marshall with 29 points and nine rebounds.
“Late in the game, I have confidence I can make the shots when then come. My teammates did a good job of finding me open and I was able to hit some shots,” Brubaker said.
The late 3-pointer by Brubaker was an ironic twist in the game as Charlotte hurt the Redhawks with 3-pointers throughout the night. Every basket Charlotte hit in the first quarter was a 3-pointer as the Orioles knocked down six triples in the opening period. That would set the tone for the game.
“Coming in, we knew they had good shooters. We were able to contain their shooters for parts of the game, but you can’t contain good shooters for a whole game. We knew they’d have their run with the way they can shoot the ball, but we were able to withstand that in the end,” Brubaker said.
After that early spurt, Marshall controlled much of the rest of the game. The Redhawks had a double-digit lead just before the half at 40-30, but a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Charlotte’s Tanner Johns cut it to 40-33.
The Orioles kept knocking down 3-pointers and eventually tied the game at 63-63 after back-to-back layups by Kyle Peterson with 4:40 left in regulation.
For the game, Johns had seven 3-pointers for all of his baskets to end up with 21 points for Charlotte to lead his team. Peterson added 19 points. For the game, the Orioles had 14 3-pointers.
“They are a great shooting team and great shooting teams are never out of game and it felt like they were going to come back on us,” Dent said. “But we feel like we are a senior-oriented team and we feel like we can close out teams when we need to and that’s what happened tonight.”
Tyler Torrey added 15 points and six rebounds for Marshall with Drew DeVine chipping in 10 points.
