Basketball doings ...

Friday night's schedule brings us two marquee matchups, one each on the boys' and girls' sides.

Paducah Tilghman's boys, which fell 51-47 at Marshall County less than two weeks ago, hosts the rematch at refurbished Otis Dinning Gym with a chance of re-establishing itself as the First Region favorite.

And Calloway County's girls, who thumped crosstown rival Murray 54-38 two weeks ago, get a chance to take one more step towards clinching the top seed in the Fourth District tournament.

It was at the start of February a year ago that Tilghman began to round into the form that eventually delivered the Tornado's third regional title in four seasons, starting an 11-game winning streak that didn't end until the state tournament loss to eventual champion Shelby Valley.

Those that saw the championship game of Massac County's Superman Classic on Saturday night saw it, with the Tornado blowing out No. 2 seed Carbondale and turning the fourth quarter into a fast-break dunkfest.

But the Tornado's last regular-season loss in 2010 came to Marshall on this date on the schedule, a week after the Superman Classic. Marshall scorched the nets from the perimeter in a 91-76 win on its home court.

Marshall held serve at home against Tilghman, and now it's the Tornado's turn to host. In fact, Tilghman doesn't leave McCracken County in the final four weeks — Brad Stieg's club's only road games in that span are at Lone Oak and St. Mary.

When Murray visits Calloway, Rechelle Turner's team finds itself in a position in which it never expected to be — the Lady Tigers were thumped in the first meeting and now find themselves with only the district race and postseason on its radar. Murray expected to be preparing for the All A Classic state tournament, but that went by the wayside in a 64-58 loss to Ballard Memorial in which it blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead.

Ballard stunned Murray with a 22-1 run, a surge fueled in part by the Lady Tigers' turnovers and mistakes. Turner sees leadership as an issue, noting that no one her team was able to take care of the basketball and stabilize things when the game got hectic.

• Missing pieces: Ballard Memorial's boys, who were beaten by Heath in the All A Classic regional final, has apparently parted ways with a couple of guards. Chris Jones, who was starting at the point but not necessarily playing starters' minutes, left the team early this week. Reserve guard Manny Yarbro, who provided some scoring punch early this season but whose playing time has dwindled lately, reportedly quit after Saturday's championship game.

• Mea culpa: I've taken a little heat for my list of the region's top-10 players in The Cats' Pause preseason magazine, having omitted Carlisle County guard Blake Rutherford, who was a Paducah Sun All-Purchase Team pick last year.

Rutherford belongs on the list, as evidenced by his 37-point performance in a losing effort against Fulton County and a 21-point showing when Carlisle avenged that loss, beating the Pilots in the All A Classic quarterfinals.

Likewise, Heath's Drew Robinson might merit inclusion on the list, too. Robinson, a 6-6 forward that can play on the wing, averaged 15.3 points as the Pirates won the All A Classic, then put up 17 points and 10 rebounds as Heath won at Graves County on Tuesday night.

Also, Heath is 7-1 on the Eagles' Nest floor this season — the only loss was to Marshall County in Graves' TimePiece Photography Roundball Classic in mid-December when point guard Damien Bolen was out with the flu. That prompted Heath center Jacob Jett to suggest that the Pirates lobby for the regional tournament be moved to the Eagles' Nest.