Boys Basketball: Marshall edges short-handed Young

Updated: February 10, 2012 7:33PM

With its three big men on the bench in street clothes, Young was already behind the eight ball before the start of its Public League Playoff game against host Marshall on Friday.

Six-foot-11 Jahlil Okafor, 6-10 Thomas Hamilton Jr., and 6-9 Paul White had to grin and bare it as their team fell to the Commandos 69-67.

Hamilton has been out all season with a knee injury, Okafor hurt his knee Thursday in practice, and White has been out the last two weeks with a fractured toe.

All three are supposed to be back before the start of the state playoffs. If that happens it will be the first time all season the Dolphins (13-9) will have all five of their starters healthy.

“We thought we would still win and the kids played extremely hard and I am proud of our effort tonight,” Young coach Tyrone Slaughter said. “We still feel good about where we are and know we have a tough road. No way you can dispute what we are capable of doing when everybody is healthy.”

Miles Reynolds helped the Dolphins grab a 47-38 halftime lead behind his 18 points. He was shut out in the second half until the final seconds of the game when he drilled an uncontested three-pointer for the final score.

Commandos sophomore Citron Miller put the defensive clamps on Reynolds, while teammate Korbin McClain had six of his 30 points in a 16-4, third-quarter run by Marshall (20-6), which took a 54-51 lead it would never relinquish.

“Citron has great defense and he stepped up to the plate when we needed him,” said McClain, who hit 4 of 4 free throws in the final 30.9 seconds to seal the win.

“Even though they were short-handed we didn’t underestimate them. We still had to fight. I concentrated and knocked those free throws down. We had to protect this house.”

Jordan Smith added 14 points for the Dolphins.

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