“You’re not going to touch the ball, you’re not going to touch the ball,” Marc Marshall remembers his defender telling him in overtime of Wilde Lake’s game against Marriotts Ridge on Monday. “So I said, ‘OK, watch.’”

Little did the defender know that coach Deon Wingfield drew up the play for Marshall during a timeout moments earlier. With the contest tied at 70 and 12.5 seconds to play, Wingfield trusted his smooth senior guard to drives past his defender and into the paint. If other Mustangs defenders came over to help, Wingfield thought Marshall’s length would allow him to shoot over them.

After easily receiving the inbounds pass, Marshall dribbled to the left wing as the shot clock winded down. Once it hit four seconds, Marshall exploded towards the basket, taking two dribbles before letting go of a right-handed shot from the right side of the paint. As the ball reached its peak, the referee blew his whistle to signal a foul. Then the ball bounced through the hoop.

“I knew I had to make a play,” Marshall said after the Wildecats’ 73-70 home triumph. “I went down the middle, the defense didn’t stop me at first so I just shot a floater that happened to go in.”

Marshall’s old-fashioned three-point play gave him 22 points, which tied him with Marriotts Ridge senior Brandon Held as the game’s top scorer. Wilde Lake (12-3, 9-2 Howard County) also leaned on seniors Trea Keys (20 points) and Emmanuel Wright (nine points) throughout the game and relied heavily on junior Marcus Mitchell in the final eight minutes of regulation. Mitchell, who transferred to Pallotti before the season but came back to Wilde Lake in early January, scored 10 of his 12 points in the fourth quarter to keep the Wildecats in the game.

Held was one of five players to finish in double figures for Marriotts Ridge, which entered Monday’s game on a three-game county winning streak but had not played since Jan. 18 because of midterms of inclement weather. The Mustangs (5-4, 9-5) were also without starting point guard Cam Heard, who suffered a concussion at a recent practice. In his absence, Amari Little (14 points) and John Miller (11 points) assumed the point guard responsibilities while big men Cam Brown (11 points) and Ryan Lee (10 points) were crucial scorers and rebounders down low.

Marriotts Ridge would not have even made it to overtime without Brown, whose buzzer-beating bank shot off a pass from Held tied the game at 66. The Mustangs then nearly forced double-overtime. Following Marshall’s free throw with 4.9 to play in the extra period, Ira Snell hoisted a shot from beyond the three-point line that had a promising trajectory towards the hoop but clanked off the front rim, clinching the heart-wrenching defeat.

“I told the guys that I’m nothing but proud of them for this game,” coach Tim Brady said. “After not playing for two weeks, how could you be disappointed. We have a game against the No. 1 team in the county and it goes into overtime.”

Girls

Long Reach 58, Reservoir 54: In a tight game with first place on the line between Long Reach and Reservoir, Howard County’s reigning Player of the Year Lyric Swann took center stage.

The Lightning senior guard delivered 10 of her game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter — accounting for all but two of her team’s points in the period — to help Long Reach (9-4, 9-2) hold off the visiting Gators.

With the two teams fighting for the top seed in Section I of the upcoming 3A East region playoffs, and Reservoir (12-4, 9-3) having already won the first meeting between the two squads this winter, Swann said the magnitude of the moment wasn’t lost on her.

“The importance of the game really stood out in the second half … because we want that home court advantage like we had last year in the playoffs. That really helped us,” said Swann, who was a key piece on last year’s team that made it to the 3A state championship game. “I just knew, for me, that I had to get mentally strong and tough, and not let injuries or them talking trash bother us.”

While Swann led the way, adding three assists and three steals, the Lightning had key contributions from a number of different players on the way to the victory. Arianna Briggs-Hall posted a double-double (10 points and 10 rebounds) and Jaelyn Swann (11 points) also finished in double figures scoring, while Haley Thompson chipped in with 10 rebounds.

Reservoir also had its share of standouts, with Emily Dorn (19 points and 14 rebounds), Kate Abunassar (14 points) and Tiffany Hooker (10 points, 4 assists) all carrying the offensive load at different points. Dorn scored seven of her points in the fourth quarter.

— Brent Kennedy,

Baltimore Sun Media Group

Indian Creek 43, Concordia Prep 20: The motivation is simple for the five seniors on the Indian Creek girls basketball team. After winning an Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland C Conference tile two years ago and falling in the semifinals of the league tournament last year, winning a second title in their careers is what will fuel them starting next week.

Following Monday’s 43-20 victory over Concordia Prep, the Eagles completed an unbeaten run through the conference. They’ll have a first-round bye and will need to win just two home games to return to the conference final in Feb. 17 at Stevenson University.

“We definitely want to go out on a bang and win the championship,” said Maddy Evans, the Eagles’ leading scorer during the season. “We didn’t quite make it there last year, so we really want that. We’re excited.”

Evans, a first-team All-County selection a year ago, led Indian Creek (15-3) with 17 points on Monday.

Sophomore Megan Bunker added 14 points for the Eagles. She’s the team’s second leading scorer at 10 points a game this year.

— Bob Hough, Baltimore Sun Media Group