Photo by Brennen Rupp Marshall’s Weston Baker Magrath goes up for a layup in the first half against Pipestone Area on Friday. The Tigers won 70-35.

MARSHALL – It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. The Marshall Tigers showed that mantra as they overcame a slow start Friday evening to defeat the Pipestone Arrows 70-35.

The Tigers opened up the game by scoring the first four points. They led 6-5 before Pipestone went on a 6-0 run to build an 11-6 lead.

During the game’s first seven minutes the Tigers had seven turnovers. Marshall coach Travis Carroll said the Arrows give the Tigers defensive looks that they haven’t seen this year.

“Pipestone did some things to us that we haven’t seen before,” said Carroll. “We saw some things that we need to work on moving forward. Give Pipestone credit, they came out with a great gameplan and took some things away from us. That’s a credit to their coaching staff.”

After falling behind 11-6, the Tigers closed out the first half on a 24-9 run to take a 30-20 lead into the locker room.

Mitch Sueker scored the Tigers’ first five points of the second half. As a team, the Tigers opened up second half on a 17-0 run to open up a 47-20 lead.

“We were able to get some stops on defense,” said Carroll. “We got some things going offensively in transition. We did a better job of running through our offense in the second half.”

In the second half the Tigers shot 65.3 percent from the floor. Carroll credits the strong shooting performance to his team working to get better looks at the basket.

“We worked together,” said Carroll. “We understand that if a team takes one thing away from us we have to work together to get other options going offensively. We did a better job of moving without the basketball and making the extra pass. Those were some pretty basic things that we weren’t doing well enough in the first half.”

Reece Winkleman led the Tigers with 16 points and shot 8 of 9 from the floor. Sueker knocked down two 3-pointers and finished with 12 points.

With the win the Tigers improved to 9-1 and extended their winning streak to four games. They’ll travel to Mankato today to take on Mankato West. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.

Coach Carroll said his team needs to start the game with better energy in order to pick up the road victory.

“We need to bring good energy,” said Carroll. “Mankato West is a section opponent. We are going on the road and we will be tested. We need to come out with great energy to start the game.”

PIPESTONE    20 15 – 35

MARSHALL    30 40 – 70

SCORING: MARSHALL 28-52, 53.8 percent (Winkleman 8-9, 0-1 16; Sueker 4-8, 2-3 12; Hess 4-4, 1-1 9; Baker Magrath 2-4, 3-6 7; Lance 2-3, 0-0 7).

3-POINT FG: MARSHALL 4 (Sueker 2; Two with 1).

REBOUNDS: MARSHALL 30 (Baker Magrath 8; Winkleman 6).

ASSISTS: MARSHALL 12 (VanMoer, Lance 3; Two with 2).

STEALS: MARSHALL 14 (Winkleman 4; Three with 2).

BLOCKS: MARSHALL 3 (Three with 1).

FOULS: MARSHALL 13.

TURNOVERS: MARSHALL 12.