The Paducah Tilghman Blue Tornado hosted the Massac County Patriots on Tuesday night for their second game in as many nights. Coming off a big win against Mayfield, the Blue Tornado kept their momentum going, posting a 70-49 win against the Patriots.
Tuesday’s game in Otis Dining Gymnasium was the first game in 11 games that the Blue Tornado have played on their home court. They have played 10 road games and a game at the middle school due to a wrestling schedule conflict. The last home game at Otis Dining was on December 20 when Tilghman beat Moore 67-55.
“It was nice to be back home, it was nice to be in front of our fans, and our kids responded to the energy that our fans brought,” Tilghman head coach Greg Overstreet said. “I thought it was a good win for us, they (Massac) are a good basketball team. We defended their best player really well and that’s one of the things we haven’t done very well in our losses is guarding their best players, so we did a good job on that tonight.”
Scoring started out slow for the home team despite a technical free throw before the game began due to a pregame Massac County error. The Patriots got off to a 4-1 lead, but precise shooting from the Blue Tornado didn’t let that trailing deficit last long as Miles Woodfork sank a corner bucket from downtown to take a 10-7 lead. A 6-0 run by Mian Shaw bumped the lead up to 16-11 and the Blue Tornado held an 18-13 after the first frame.
Sharp shooting continued into the second quarter as Tilghman maintained their lead while keeping the Patriots at bay. The defense that Coach Overstreet talked about was strong against Isaac Hosman who was kept to just eight points, all in the first half of play.
Senior Shaw had a solid 20-point night to lead all scorers. Nine of those points came in the first half of play and Jayvion Powell added eight of his own 14 points in the first half as well.
The Blue Tornado had another strong performance from the charity stripe, making 7-of-11, with Powell sinking six of them.
Tilghman held a 15-point lead at 35-20 going into halftime and really found their stride from there. They never let their northern opponents within 10 points the rest of the night and built their lead to as much as 27 with just under two minutes left in the game, and closed out the night with the 70-49 win with plenty of bench talent seeing late minutes.
The back-to-back wins against Mayfield and Massac bode well for the Blue Tornado as they prepare for another back-to-back against Marshall County and Todd County Central on Friday and Saturday.
Paducah Tilghman 18 17 21 14 — 70
Massac County 13 7 16 13 — 49
PT: M. Shaw 20, J. Powell 14, M. Woodfork 11, J. Harris 8, A. Wilkins 5, C. Payne 4, O. Williams 4, J. Campbell 2, L. McMullen 2.
MC: I. Higgerson 14, B. Smallman 8, I. Hosman 8, J. Lee 7, H. Box 6, N. Eskridge 4, K. Garnett 2.
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