Collinwood handed the Marshall County Tigers (5-3) their second straight loss on Friday afternoon when they defeated MCHS 72-61 in the Wildcat Christmas Classic at Lawrence County High School.

Playing without starting point guard Chris Walker and key reserve D'Andre Brown, the Tigers were unable to keep pace with the undefeated Trojans, who are ranked third in the current Class A AP poll. Collinwood (8-0) built a 47-38 lead in the first half before opening up a 66-49 advantage early in the fourth quarter en route to claiming the 11-point victory.

Missing players

"Not having Chris and D'Andre hurts us a lot. They're two prime players in our rotation that do a lot for us offensively and defensively. We had some other people step up, but it hurt us depth wise," said MCHS coach Adrian Wilson. "That doesn't take away the fact that Collinwood played well. They're ranked third in the state for a reason."

The Tigers were unable to slow down the Trojans freewheeling offense, as Collinwood finished with 27 field goals on 51 percent shooting, highlighted by a 6-of-13 effort from three-point range, while outscoring Marshall County 12-5 at the foul line. The Trojans did commit 18 turnovers, but offset that by outrebounding MCHS 34-28.

Logan Montgomery led three Collinwood players in double figures with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Kelby Ray followed Montgomery with 17 points, while Tucker Roberson tallied 14 points. Wesley Pigg, Alden Littlejohn, and Jace Brewer rounded out the scoring for the Trojans with nine, eight, and five points respectively.

Despite hitting only 4-of-16 attempts from beyond the arc, the Tigers finished with 26 field goals on 41 percent shooting and committed only 14 turnovers.

Best game

Freshman forward Jay Howard gave Marshall County a spark off the bench by pouring in a career high 19 points on 9-of-10 shooting to go along with 13 rebounds and four steals. Aaron Hobbs also added 12 points and Kacy Pleas notched 11 points. Malek Sain tallied nine points for MCHS as well, while Steven Dangerfield, Darious McKenzie, and Curtis Keiler chipped in five, three, and two points respectively.

The Tigers jumped out to an early 10-7 lead with the help of five points from Pleas and a McKenzie three-point play before Collinwood closed the first quarter with a 14-4 run to seize a 21-14 advantage.

Marshall County outscored the Trojans 10-1 through the first 2:25 of the second period on the strength of six points from Howard to pull ahead 24-22, but Collinwood responded with an 18-8 spurt to take a 40-32 lead.

Closing gap

Hobbs and Sain sandwiched a pair of treys around a Montgomery layup to narrow the gap to 42-38, before the Trojans notched the final five points of the half to take a 47-38 advantage into the break.

Collinwood then began to distance themselves from MCHS in the third quarter and outscored the Tigers 13-6 in the stanza to open up a 60-44 advantage.

After the Tigers trimmed the deficit to 60-46 at the start of the fourth quarter on an offensive put back by Pleas, the Trojans tallied six of the next nine points to forge a 66-49 lead with 6:10 left.

Marshall County then outscored Collinwood 12-6 the rest of the way behind five points from Dangerfield and four points from Sain for the 72-61 final.