Marathon Boys Basketball. (Photo from earlier in the season/The Cortland Voice).
The Marathon Olympians (#11 seed) defeated Jefferson/Stamford (#6 seed) in the first round of the Section IV Class D Tournament with a score of 73-41.
It was a close game at the beginning with both teams going back and forth.
The Olympians ended the first half with a 31-23 lead. Marathon was able to increase their lead to 20 points by the end of the third quarter (57-37).
In the fourth quarter, the Olympians were able to close out the game by outscoring Jefferson/Stamford 16-4.
“I thought overall as a team we are starting to feel more comfortable,” said Marathon Head Coach Jim Holland. “I moved three sophomores up (Jacob Byron, Bryce Hartman & Zachary Birdsall). Letting those guys get some games under their belt with the rest of the group has definitely helped us. Guys are not as tired. We are getting rotations in and they seem to be more confident. They’re not tired and are not expected to do too much, other than just play basketball.”
During the game, Marathon junior Conor Holland reached the 1,000th career point mark.
“It was a really good experience,” said Conor Holland. “I was really excited and it was a great accomplishment for myself. Our team seemed to feed off of that after we had that little moment. We seemed to turn up the heat and go to work after that.”
Conor Holland ended up leading the Olympians with 39 points in the game.
Following Conor Holland was Braeden Morrison, who was a defensive powerhouse with 8 rebounds and 6 steals. Morrison also scored 6 points and recorded 7 assists.
“He (Morrison) turned the heat up in the second half defensively,” said Coach Holland. “He does a lot of things that people don’t think are important, but they really are.”
Here is a score breakdown of the game from last night:
Up next, Marathon will play in the sectional quartet-finals against Deposit/Hancock (#3 seed) this Saturday (February 26) at the Deposit Middle-Senior High School. Tip off is scheduled for 6pm.
