Big three, round one ...

In a stretch of seven days, the First Region's top three teams are squaring off in what amounts to a midseason round-robin — Paducah Tilghman came from behind to beat Graves County 90-81 on Saturday night and visits Marshall County on Tuesday night. The Eagles, who have already lost to Marshall once this season, host the rematch on Friday night.

Some observations after round one:

Tilghman coach Brad Stieg seems to have settled on a starting lineup that includes three guards, with Cody Schultz and Trevonte Cole (who combined to go 10-for-20 from 3-point range) flanking point guard Josh Forrest and versatile forward Darrius Brown in a sixth-man role. Earlier in the season, Brown was in the first five, with Schultz coming off the bench.

"In the First Region, teams are going to pack it on us with that lineup," Stieg said. "This gives us two shooters to spread the defense, and I like all the things that Darrius does for us coming off the bench."

DeShawn Jackson has turned in some solid work as the top guard reserve, and Tilghman can still call on DeCarida Key as a swingman and two bigs off the bench in 6-4 Chavion Harper and 6-7 Devin Wilson.

Tilghman's ferocious fourth-quarter run shows that the Tornado's "A" game is the region's best, but there are still some defensive issues to address.

As for Graves, it's been a pair of really frustrating losses in the region, the first one to Marshall in the championship game of Graves' TimePiece Holiday Classic in mid-December. In both games, the Eagles held double-digit leads in the first half on their home court, fueled for the most part by dead-eye perimeter shooting.

Graves was 9-for-16 from beyond the arc in regulation against Marshall, then went 0-for-7 from long range in the overtime, falling 63-57 after being outscored 8-2 in the extra four minutes.

The Eagles held a 15-point lead on Marshall early in the second quarter and had Tilghman down 38-24 with less than three minutes left in the first half — at the time, Graves had hit seven of its 12 3-point attempts.

Is there a moral to the story? Perhaps, in that as long as the Eagles' four-guard lineup is shooting the ball well from the perimeter, Graves is a dangerous team, not to mention that athletic center Aaron Cooper is having a splendid season — he had 23 points and 17 rebounds against Tilghman's big front line.

And the depth issue is something with which the Eagles will have to contend. Guard Mason Beale and forward Travis Beck are the best bets off the bench, but they may not be ready to handle major minutes just yet against the likes of Tilghman.

Stieg has taken to calling his team "a work in progress" and, in a sense, the Eagles' bench brigade is, too.