Patriots travel to Paragould to battle Mustangs

Patriots travel to Paragould to battle Mustangs

Marion looks for second conference win of the season tonight

sports@theeveningtimes.com

The Marion Patriots (2-1 overall, 1-0 conference) take the hardwood against conference foe Green County Tech Mustangs (21, 0-1) tonight at 5 p.m. in Paragould.

The Patriots are coming off their first conference win of the season in which a miraculous fourth quarter comeback led Marion to a 47-45 victory over the Blytheville Chickasaws.

Marion Patriots Head Coach Irving Clay hopes that his team can carry that momentum throughout tonight’s game.

“I hope it’s not fool’s gold and that we can keep it up,” Clay said. “It has to be for four quarters. I understand there’s going to be some slippage sometimes but we have to fight to keep that focus, especially going into a hostile environment.”

The Patriots proved they have the ability to fight and maintain focus in their previous outing against the Chickasaws. Trailing by 13 points at the half, Marion clawed their way back into the game in a third quarter led by sophomore point guard Keyshawn Woods. Woods scored 10 of the Patriots 14 points in the third to pull his team within 11 points of the Chickasaws.

Senior guard Shaun Doss then took over in the fourth quarter, accounting for 12 of 18 Patriot points in the final quarter of play. If any two Patriots players can duplicate the efforts of Woods and Doss, Clay feels confident about his team’s chances of leaving Paragould victorious.

“Any given night there’s going to be two players who score sixty percent of your points,” Clay said.

“In the NBA teams have a ‘Big 3.’ In high school, it’s hard to have that so we try to have a ‘Big 2.’ It may not always be the same two players but if we can get two players contributing sixty percent of our points night in and night out then were in good shape.”

The Patriots were held to just 15 points in the first half of their game against Blytheville. Improving on fundamentals will be key in order for Marion to get off to a hotter start against the Mustangs.

“You don’t ever want to get off to a slow start on the road,” Clay said. “We have to do the small stuff like get lay-ups, turnovers and try to build momentum. We have to have the basics. If we play good defense, rebound the ball and make free throws then I think we’re in pretty good shape.”

If the Patriots do get off to a quick start, that will be the only change in the Patriots style of play according to Clay.

“We’re going to keep it simple and do what we do,” Clay said. “We’re not going to change things up for anybody. We just have to get better at what we do and improve on the basics. We’re not going to improve on anything if we don’t have the basics down.”

Tonight’s matchup in Paragould against the Mustangs represents the Patriots second conference game of the season and their first matchup against Green County Tech. Tipoff is at 5 p.m.

By Collins Peeples