Big three, round three ...

So ... the midseason round-robin between First Region heavyweights Paducah Tilghman, Marshall County and Graves County ended in a draw.

Friday night's third installment may have been the best game of the three, a contest full of drama that went right down to the final second, when Graves reserve Travis Beck tipped in a missed shot by backup point guard Mason Beale to give the Eagles a 56-54 win.

Note the key words ... reserves. Graves' bench, which has been woefully thin for much of the year, made its biggest contribution yet in a tight game. Beck hit two 3-pointers in the first half and scored 10 points, and Beale was handed the ballhandling responsibilities as Graves set up the game-winning shot without point guard Jesse Anderson, who was held scoreless in the first half and had fouled out with just five points, his season-low total.

Beck, a 6-3 junior who is more of a face-the-basket player, transferred in from Joppa in mid-December and was pushed into some brief action almost before he had a chance to practice with the Eagles, which meant he had precious little time to learn the team's extensive array of offensive sets. Beale, a sophomore, is the first guard off the bench and the heir apparent at the point when Anderson graduates this spring.

What else did we learn about Graves? As good as Anderson is, he might not be the Eagles' most indispensible player. That might fall on athletic 6-4 center Aaron Cooper, Graves' only true post player. With Cooper on the bench with four fouls and Graves holding a seven-point lead with less than two minutes remaining, Marshall attacked the basket at will, scoring two baskets and five points in two possessions.

Combined with a turnover, Marshall made it seven points in three trips and tied the score when guard Blake Clark drew Anderson's fifth foul and sank two free throws with less than a minute remaining.

As for Marshall ... it appears that Gus Gillespie's crew has the size and bulk that enables it to match up with Tilghman a little better than the Eagles. Drew Williams and Casey White, who had big putbacks in both games last week, provide some inside depth and enable Marshall to use a lot of fouls in the paint. That, in turn, exposes one of the Tornado's glaring flaws, its free throw shooting.

What did we learn over the past week or so? Tilghman is still the favorite, in my estimation, probably because it appears to have the most upside. I'm sticking with Marshall second and Graves third — the teams have split two games this season — but, as someone from the Eagles' camp noted on Friday night, the gap between No. 1 and No. 3 might have narrowed a bit.

Stay tuned for the second round-robin, coming soon — the Tornado hosts Marshall and Graves in back-to-back games on Jan. 28 and Feb. 1, and then the Marshals host Graves on Feb. 4.