By Don Eskins
The Marionville Comets battled back from a 15-6 first quarter deficit to grab a 22-20 lead at the half over a tough Greenfield Wildcats Saturday night in the Marionville Invitational final, in Marionville.
The Comets then pushed their lead on up to 34-22 after three quarters of play and seemed on their way to an easy victory over the Cats.
But the Wildcats, behind some stellar defensive pressure stormed back to grab a 42-40 lead with just seconds showing on the clock.
The Comets needed some late fourth quarter heroics to win, or send the game into over-time.
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They got it from Josh Goodman. Goodman drained a buzzer beater for Marionville with no time left on the clock to keep the Comets hopes for a victory in their own tournament alive.
“It’s not the way we drew it up but we did get a good shot,” said Comet coach Ted Young. “It was a great shot by Josh, but we also got a good pass and screen to make it work. Our kids showed a lot of composure to keep us in the game.”
Goodman, who finished the game with fifteen points, was still fired up about his shot in the tournaments post game interview.
“I couldn’t find anyone else open to get the ball to for the shot, so I took it,” Goodman said. “And with a little luck, it went in.”
Marionville never looked back as the two teams took the floor in over-time. The Comets outpointed the Wildcats 15-6 to pick up a 57-48 victory to claim their own Marionville Invitational Tournament.
The Comets were lead by Levi Doyle who canned a game high 17 points. Close behind was Goodman with 15. Other Marionville cagers chipping in points were Cole Brown- 8, Gavin Stanton- 6, Laythen Utke- 6, Aaron Head- 3 and Nick Dean- 2.
Leading the way for the Wildcats were Marcus Wright, who tallied 17 points, and Jalen Roby with 16. Also scoring were Colin White- 5, Shelby Correria- 4, Draven Stapp- 2, Mason Jones- 2 and Bailey Baker- 2.
The victory kept the Comets perfect, at 3-0 for in 2016, while the Wildcats slid to 3-1.
“It often doesn’t matter how good or bad you play, if you don’t make your free throws more than likely you’re going to lose,” said Greenfield coach Preston Hyde. “We missed 16 of them tonight and that was really the story of the game.”
“But I told our kids not to be too disappointed,” Hyde went on to say. “The beauty about regular season play is that you always have another game coming up. Our kids will get another opporturnity to get back on track soon.”
As for the Comets coach Young was happy to see his young team play so well.
“Our kids played well enough to beat a very good Greenfield team tonight,” said Young. “Hopefully it will give our kids a boost for the rest of the season.”
Marionville All-Tourney Team
1. Jalen Roby- Greenfield, 2. Levi Doyle- Marionville, 3. Marcus Wright-Greenfield, 4. Collin Pearman- Cassville, 5. Cole Brown- Marionville, 6. Paton Clay- Southwest, 7. Jack Rigdon- Spokane, 8. Trey Dalton- Cassville, 9. Isiah Bean- Spokane, 10. Devon Resz- Southwest, 11. Mason Jones- Greenfield- 12. Layton Moody- Buffalo.
