Top-seeded and No. 2-ranked Marshall used a relentless pressure defense Saturday to fuel a 57-point first-half barrage as the Tigers overwhelmed Mankato West 89-39 in a Section 2AAA girls basketball semifinal at Gustavus’ Lund Center.
After falling behind 7-0, the Scarlets (11-17) junior forward Livi Downs’ six-point flurry — two free throws, a 14-footer off the right baseline and slicing drive to the cup — trimmed the deficit to 7-6. However, junior guard Taleigha Bigler tallied eight points during a 12-0 run which put the Tigers in front 19-6.
Downs then buried two straight from distance to make it 19-12 before the high-octane Tigers took command.
“Our goal going in was to fight for each other and I thought we really did that,” Bigler, who fired in 23 of her game-high 24 points in helping Marshall (26-1) expand its lead to 57-21 at the break.
“We swung the ball and had a lot of assists and steals. We ran a lot of our offense off our defense. … We take a lot of pride in our defense and making the extra pass on offense really helped.”
Downs, versatile 6-footer, scored 16 of her team-best 18 points while senior guard Ella Mullenbach tallied all nine of her points in the second half. Marshall blitzed the net at a 60% clip (35 of 58) compared to the Scarlets’ 15 of 49 for 30.6 %. The Tigers dominated the glass 38-21 and committed fewer turnovers 21-8.
Senior forward Paige Schneekoth tallied 14 points and eight rebounds for the winners, who also received 16 points from senior wing Page Gilingham.
“West was able to hang around for a while with Downs being a great player,” Marshall coach Dan Westby said.
“We had that big push right before the half that gave us that big lead heading into halftime. We felt we had to be mindful of who had the ball in their hands for West. Our kids did a good job recognizing that and were able to slow some kids down.”
Senior guard Jillian Olsen and freshman guard Joy Weimer connected from 3-point range in the second half, but the Scarlets, who played without injured junior forward Romo Smith, had no answers for the potent Tigers.
“I just think that we weren’t disciplined enough,” Downs said. “Our coach knew what she was doing, but we came out too slow and we knew that would kill us. Basketball is a game of runs and we just didn’t have enough runs. We just weren’t confident handling the ball well and that didn’t allow us to get into our offense. We were second guessing ourselves and that allowed them to double us. … We had a lot of ups and downs this year and we had injuries that made us learn to play without key players.”
Marshall plays the New Ulm-St. Peter winner Wednesday night at Lund Center.