The Marshall County Tigers showed some true early season grit Tuesday night at Columbia Central, coming back from a 17-point fourth quarter deficit before falling in overtime 82-69.

"I am proud of the no-quit attitude, but I am not into moral victories when we lose," said MCHS head coach Adrian Wilson. "We put ourselves in a big hole throughout the game. We only had one good quarter and we can't play that way and expect to win. The missed layups and free throws really hurt us. Hopefully, these young guys will learn from this and it will make us better in the long run."

Tigers move ahead

The Tigers hung tough in the first quarter, trailing 12-9 after the first eight minutes.

A Chris Walker runner in the lane tied the contest at 15 before the Lions turned it on, outscoring Marshall County 20-7 the remainder of the period to lead 35-22 at the half.

The Tigers could not make any headway in the third quarter and trailed by the same 15-point deficit, entering the final eight minutes of play in Maury County.

Columbia's Keyvonta Cathey nailed a jumper at the outset of the fourth quarter, giving the Lions their biggest lead of the night at 17 points, but MCHS was not in the mood to quit.

Final 5 minutes

Aaron Hobbs hit one free throw and the Lions turned the ball over to the Tigers, who scored on a Jay Howard bucket in the paint, making it 49-35 as Wilson called timeout with 5:01 remaining in the contest.

Marteca Webster countered with a basket for Columbia before Kasey Pleas scored and Howard followed with another basket off a Tiger miscue.

The Lions seemed to get a little gun shy and bricked two shots in a row before DeAndre Brown hit one of two from the free-throw line for Marshall County.

"A couple things changed in the fourth quarter," said Wilson. "We finally started attacking the rim instead of settling for outside shots and quick shots. Columbia stopped trying to score and started trying to run clock too early. That hurt Columbia and we capitalized on it."

Tiger comeback

Pleas scored on a steal and score, but Ashanta Brown countered with a three-point play in the paint for the Lions, upping their lead to 54-42.

Pleas scored again at the other end for the Tigers and Wilson called for the Tigers to begin to foul to try to get back in the game with the clocked stopped.

The strategy began to work as Columbia missed the front end of a one-and-one and Howard scored again, making it a 54-46 contest.

Time was waning when Walker scored for the Tigers and Brandon Levier hit the front end of a one-and-one situation, but missed the second attempt with 1:39 remaining in the game.

Within 3

Pleas remained red hot, scoring on a short pull-up jumper in the lane and the Lions coughed the ball up, allowing Pleas to score again, making it a three-point game at 55-52.

Cathey went to the line and hit two free throws for the Lions, but Howard countered with another two points in the paint.

Pleas would foul out at the other end with 1:06 left to play, but Columbia missed both foul shots and called timeout to try to settle and stop the Tigers' momentum.

Howard was fouled and hit both ends of a one-and-one, slicing the Columbia lead to a single digit at 57-56.

Levier came back with two foul shots for the Lions, before Walker tied the game at 59-59 on a three-point play, the old-fashioned way, with 30.9 seconds remaining in the battle of the Big Cats.

Regulation ends

The Lions turned over the ball and the Tigers looked like they would win the game, running out to a three-on-one fast break, but a pass went just off their fingertips and out of bounds, giving the rock back to Columbia with 4.2 seconds remaining in the game.

"I saw that we had a three-on-one break with six seconds and counting and thought that we were going to hit the game-winning layup," said Wilson. "We should have taken it straight to the rim, but we didn't and turned it over and had to settle for a chance in overtime."

The Lions did not score and the game went to overtime tied at 59.

Columbia's Kendall Gill drilled a 3-pointer to begin the overtime session and the Tigers went cold from the field.

Taking over

From there, the Lions took off and sealed the deal, winning by the 11-point margin.

"We went back to the way we played the first three quarters," said Wilson. "Our first three shots in overtime were deep balls and we had not been effective with that all night. We should have kept going with what got us back in the game, getting shots at the rim."

Walker led the Tigers in the scoring with 21 points, while Pleas (12 points) and Howard (10 points) were also in double figures.

Hobbs ended up with eight points, Brown netted seven, Darius McKenzie scored five points, Malek Sain tallied four, and Curtis Keiler had one 3-pointer for MCHS.

Gill led the Lions' charge 20 points, while Levier and Brown had 19 points apiece.

The Tigers have a tough holiday schedule with games at the Wildcat Christmas Classic in Lawrenceburg this weekend.

The Tigers (5-2) will open their presents before getting on the yellow bus for a trip to Nashville where they will play in the Overton Christmas Tournament on Dec. 27, 28, and 29.