Scoring a modest number of points in their basketball games — but allowing even fewer — has proved a winning formula for the Marshall Statesmen.
Through Friday (Jan. 31) action, the boys high-school team owned a 13-7 overall record and a second-place mark of 5-4 in the Liberty District.
The Statesmen’s most recent contest resulted in a 63-34 road win over the Annandale Atoms in non-district play, for their third straight victory.
The game before, Marshall knocked off the first place Yorktown Patriots, 64-49, also on the road in a strong performance.
The loss was Yorktown’s first in Liberty District this season.
“We had two real good games on back-to-back nights,” Marshall coach Jerry Lin told FFXnow.
The most points Marshall has allowed in a game this winter was 68 in a holiday-tournament loss. In the nine games since that defeat, the most points any opponent has scored against Marshall was 55.
During that stretch, the Statesmen also have yielded as few as 29 points, along with 34, 35, 38, 40, 45, 49 and 50.
“We played hard the whole game against Yorktown, and our defense was good again. Then we came right back against Annandale and showed we were ready to go and play hard again,” Lin said. “That shows mental growth from this team, and we are happy about that.”
Senior starting center Anderson Krisko is one of Marshall’s top players. He scored 15 points with as many rebounds against Yorktown, then had nine points and 10 boards against Annandale.
“We came out shooting hot in both games, gave it our all, and we executed and ran our game plans,” Krisko said.
Another reason Marshall won both was the hot outside shooting from Shreyas Vaidya. He scored 16 and made two three-pointers against Yorktown, then made six threes for 18 points against Annandale.
“Him hitting those outside shots made a big difference,” Lin said.
Osteen Suguru scored 13 in the Yorktown game and Trey Lonardo had nine.
Against Annandale, Lonardo scored 10 with seven rebounds. Jackson Fraser scored nine to go with four assists and two steals.
In addition, Wesley Ochsendorf had two points and 11 rebounds off the bench; Suguru had two points, three assists and two steals; Rishab Saravanan three points, three assists and three rebounds; and Amjed Oubei scored four.
NOTE: Even in some losses Marshall, has not allowed many points. The squad gave up just 35 and 40 in district setbacks against the Wakefield Warriors.
