The Marshall County Tigerettes eked out an ugly 38-34 win Tuesday night at Columbia Central and they’ll take it as they extended their winning streak to six games over the Lady Lions in the decades old rivalry between the two neighboring county schools.

“It was an ugly win, we gotta do better, and I gotta do better,” MCHS coach David Steely said. “We turned the ball over too much, that is our number one issue right now and we have to take care of it better.”

“If we don’t turn the ball over we probably pull away and are up by 15 early, but we didn’t do that.”

Karlye Wiser came up huge for the Tigerettes as the sharpshooting guard buried all four of Marshall County’s 3-pointers in the contest, all coming in the first half.

Wiser nailed two first quarter 3-pointers as the Lady Lions outscored Marshall County 10-8 in a sloppy first quarter.

The Tigerettes turned up the defensive pressure in the second period, holding Columbia Central to just five points while Wiser drained two more treys and three free throws for 9 out the 16 points in the quarter for the Tigerettes, who held a 24-15 lead at halftime.

“We did a good job in the first half, they were trying to do some trapping against us and we did a good job making the pass out and making the next pass to her open and she buried them and they had to get out of that because she was going to get too many open shots,” Steely said. “It was Dionna who kind of did it to them the last game, tonight it was Karlye and that’s good because they are knocking down those shots.”

Central came back with a 6-0 run to begin the second half on a pair of buckets by Jenice Bailey and a Janiyah Riley jumper to cut the Tigerettes’ lead to three points before Dionna Crutcher halted the streak with a layup for MCHS.

Riley knocked down a rebound and put-back to make it a 26-23 contest, but Hannah Davis matched the basket at the other end for the Tigerettes before a Columbia timeout with 3:03 remaining in the third period.

After missed field goals by both squads, Central had a chance to cut in to the lead again, but two missed free throws led to a Crutcher basket and after an offensive foul call on the Lady Lions, Israel Hurt scored on a rebound and put-back and MCHS took a 32-23 to the fourth quarter.

Ryleigh Hamm drilled a 3-pointer to begin the final period for the Lady Lions, who came all the way back with a 9-0 run that was capped off on back-to-back steal and scores by Josie Parks and Riley, tying the game at 32-32 with 5:50 remaining in the contest.

Crutcher and Bailey traded buckets as the game moved under the three-minute mark when Crutcher came up with a steal and just missed on the layup attempt, but she was fouled and made one-of-two from the free throw line, putting MCHS in front 35-34.

After non-scoring opportunities by both teams, Davis made it a 37-34 contest on a big rebound and put-back and the Lady Lions called timeout with 1:05 left in the battle.

Kelsey Keiler came up with the defensive play of the game when she stepped in front of a Lady Lion, taking a hard charge that gave the ball back to MCHS.

Moments later, Crutcher hit one-of-two from the free throw line and at the other end, the Lady Lions missed after three offensive rebounds.

The Tigerettes tried to let Central back in the game as they turned the ball over, but Columbia (1-7) could not take advantage as they went 0-for-4 from the charity stripe and the Tigerettes escaped with the win.

“We are 5-2 and that’s a decent record and we got a chance I feel Friday night to get another win,” Steely said. “Hopefully we can stick with what we call good basketball and try to do those things better and better and go from there.”

Marshall County (5-2) hosts Hickman County (6-4) Friday night at the Dottie Kelso Memorial Gymnasium in Lewisburg before they travel over to Centerville to play in the annual Above the Rim Classic where they take on Perry County (2-6) in an opening round game on Friday, December 27 at 1 p.m.

“Hickman County is always a good test, their program is getting better and they made the region tournament last year and of course they are in our region, so you have to make a good showing because everyone will have that film in their hands,” Steely said. “We are just focusing on us right now, we are going to try to the next few days in practice of here are the things that we have to do better and focus on that.”

Marshall County 8 16 8 6-38

Columbia Central 10 5 8 11-34

Marshall County (38): Karlye Wiser 15, Dionna Crutcher 8, Kelsey Keiler 6, Hannah Davis 5, Israel Hurt 2, Maliyah Canty 2.

Three-point goals (4): Wiser 4.

Free Throws (6-for-12): Wiser 3-for-3, Crutcher 2-for-5, Davis 1-for-2, Hurt 0-for-2.

Columbia Central (34): Josie Parks 11, Janiyha Riley 9, Ryleigh Hamm 8, Jenice Bailey 6.

Three-point goals (3): Hamm 2, Parks.

Free Throws (1-for-3): Riley 1-for-1, Bailey 0-for-2.

Halftime Score: Marshall County 24, Columbia Central 15.