Photo by Jake McNeil: Tigers forward Morgan Biella (12) spins a shot from the low block during the second half of the Marshall girls basketball team’s win over Mankato West in Marshall on Tuesday night.
MARSHALL — After falling into an early hole, the Marshall girls basketball team took advantage of a strong second half to escape with a 75-48 win over Mankato West on Thursday night to complete a three-game home sweep. All three wins came by 9 or more points.
The Scarlets started strong behind a pair of 3-pointers from Arianna Smith and Olivia Downs. From there, Mankato’s defense stifled West Marshall. Although the Tigers were able to grab some offensive rebounds, they were never able to convert second-chance opportunities.
A free throw by Reece Drake gave Marshall its first point of the game. Reese Graven also knocked down one of two attempts from the charity stripe a minute later but it wasn’t until Morgan Bjella kicked a field goal eight minutes into the game that Marshall got his first field goal. The bucket came with Mankato West leading 14-2.
“We just got off to a slow start but part of that was good shooting by West.” Marshall coach Dan Westby said. “They came out and shot the ball well early and we were down 12 to 1, and we felt like we had chances to go down the ball and we didn’t. We were coming up sideways a lot and our game got better as the game went on, but it wasn’t the start we were looking for.”
Taleigha Bigler stole the ball with full-court pressure following a Bjella bucket to assist Reece Drake on a layup and then knocked down a transition 3-pointer on the next possession to make it 14-9, prompting a Mankato West timeout.
Rachel Young converted a 3-pointer after a timeout to give the Scarlets back the lead but a pair of layups from Graven and a Bjella shot from the low post made it a one-possession game. Bigler then came up with another key steal to set up Paige Gillingham for a long two-point jumper in the corner that tied the game at 17-17 with 5:23 left in the first half.
Marshall’s offense was balanced early as four scorers finished the first half with at least 5 points. Bjella and Drake led the way with 7 each.
Biella went on to finish with a season-high 17 points. In addition to leading the Tigers in points, she also led the team in efficiency. She shot 8 of 11 from the field and two of her misses were hot potato 3-pointers at the end of the shot clock. With nine total rebounds including four on the offensive glass, her play helped pace Marshall to a 55% two-field goal percentage to Mankato West’s 38%.
“Morgan was really offensive tonight and we need her to do that. She’s one of our older kids and she’s an athletic kid. We need her to be offensive.” Westby said.
Taleja Bigler led Marshall’s rebounding efforts with 12 boards, four of which came on the offensive glass. As a team, Marshall outscored New Ulm 37-27. Paige Gillingham also had three offensive boards on the night to help Marshall gain a 13-4 advantage in offensive boards.
Marshall and Mankato West exchanged buckets after Gillingham’s game-tying shot but Bigler’s 3-pointer and Drake’s layup gave Marshall a 29-26 lead heading into the locker room.
Defensively, the Tigers completely stymied Mankato West’s offense to start the second half. Young hit a 3-pointer after Biella’s basket in the opening half, but the Scarlets didn’t score another point for six minutes.
“I thought Reece Graven was really effective in front of our press tonight. “There were a few times where she was guarding a player one-on-one and I thought she did a really good job of slowing them down as they got the ball up the floor.” Westby said.
It didn’t take long for the Tigers to turn a tight game into a blowout. Marshall’s lead quickly swelled to 28 points. Marshall took out all of their starters in the final two minutes so some of the deeper rotation players could get some college experience.
“I thought we did a good job of finding kids going to the basket. We’ve been able to get some easier baskets that way versus having to play a lot on the perimeter and we can’t be that team that lives and dies by the three. We’ve got to try to manufacture some points in Inside. Westby said.
Kennedy Drake had a team-high six assists while Reece Drake dished out another five. Neither Drake had a turnover in the game and Reese also finished second on the team with 15 points.
As a team, Mankato West turned the ball over 21 times to Marshall’s eight. Taleigha Bigler came up with three steals for Marshall, tying the Scarlets’ team total, while each Drake came away with two more. Bigler also knocked down three of her 10 3-pointers in the game, falling shy of only Jillian Olsen’s four for Mankato West.
Bigler and Gillingham finished with 11 and 10 points respectively for the Tigers while Olsen and Downs led the Scarlets’ efforts with 14 and 10 points.
No. Marshall improved to 3-1 with the win, and their only loss of the year was on the road to No. 3 Alexandria in the season opener. The Tigers will look to extend their winning streak to four games when they head to New Ulm to take on the No. 7 Eagles on Friday night.
“We have to do better from the start. We can’t get down. It almost cost us here tonight.” Westby said. “Fortunately we were able to put in a good performance in the second half, but we can’t afford a slow start like that. We have to be ready to go.”
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