Photo by Emily Daniels Marshall’s Hannah Meier puts up a shot during their game against Pipestone Area on Friday. The Tigers defeated the Arrows 43-42.

MARSHALL – The Marshall girls basketball team had to rely on perseverance and grit on Friday night as their matchup against the Pipestone Area Arrows went down to the final seconds. Holding just a one-point lead with under 10 seconds left, the Tigers were able to get a key defensive stop on its final possession to walk away with a 43-42 victory.

The slow start in the first half for the Tigers didn’t have an effect on the way they brought the intensity in the second half. Marshall kept the Arrows on their feet the entirety of the game, which led the Tigers to their second win of the New Year.

Senior Hannah Meier was pleased with the amount of intensity that their team played with and how they were able to stay strong down the stretch.

“It was really intense and our team really wanted to focus on coming out fighting strong right away and we did that by bringing the intensity right away,” said Meier. “We played really selfless tonight, whoever was open we fed it to them. Working as a team helped us come out with the win.”

The first half started off promising for the Tigers as Jordyn Hilgemann put up the first points for the Tigers giving them an early 2-0 lead. Marshall didn’t hold the lead for long as the Arrows came and used an 8-0 run to take an 8-2 lead with 14:28 left in the half. The Tigers saw multiple scoring opportunities on offense but couldn’t find the connections they were looking for, which led to the Arrows to picking up the pace more on offense and growing their lead to 11-2. Hilgemann didn’t let Pipestone’s lead get into her head as she found another scoring opportunity for the Tigers and took advantage, the Tigers still trailed the Arrows at 11-4 with 11:30 left to play in the first half.

As time went by on the clock Pipestone continued to grow its lead over the Tigers but it wasn’t long until Marshall got its head back into the game and started to close the gap, pulling to within three points with 4:11 left on the clock. The Tigers would then pick up the intensity on both sides of the court, but still found themselves trailing Pipestone at halftime at 22-17.

The slow start for the Tigers in the first half wasn’t what they were looking for, which led to a change of intensity and mindset as they went into the second half. Following a Pipestone basket, junior Kaia Sueker and Meier responded with runs of their own to close the score to a one-point gap at 24-23 with 16:30 left in the second half.

Using her height to her advantage, Meier became one of the Tigers key players under the basket, putting up nine points. Meier’s offensive contributions helped the Tigers tie the score up at 35-35 with 10 minutes left in the second half before Marshall took the lead later on.

The Tigers’ intensity on offense mirrored what they were doing on defense in the second half, as Marshall’s pressure on the Arrows offense helped the Tigers take the lead at 40-36 with seven minutes left. The Arrows would counter with a run of their own to take the lead back from the Tigers at 42-38, but sophomore Lenei Estrada came alive from beyond the arc, as she hit her second 3-pointer in the second half to close the gap to a one-point deficit to make the score 42-41. Hilgemann would then get fouled with just 3:30 left on the clock, sending the freshman to the line for one-and-one. She hit both of her free throws which gave the Tigers a two-point lead.

The Arrows would cut it to one again at 43-42 with a minute to play, and Marshall made sure to keep the ball away from Pipestone with good ball movement. Pipestone regained possession of the ball with just 7.3 seconds left and would get a shot off on the ensuing possession, but were called for an offensive foul, giving the ball back to the Tigers with 4.9 seconds left. Marshall then ran out the clock to cap off the nail-biter game.

The second half was a big half for the Tigers and coach Dan Westby was impressed with the way the girls fought on offense and not being selfish with the ball, while putting up a fight until the end.

“It was a hard fought game, we did a better job in the second half getting the ball inside and was able to score,” said Westby. “We had a long scoring drought in the first half, but our kids did a nice job of keeping the ball inside and finishing the night. We were being very unselfish with the ball. Hannah Meier spent a majority of the time inside, while the kids were being patient with her waiting until she became open and able to get her the ball.”

The Tigers were led by Meier, who finished the night off with 15 points, followed by Hilgemann with 12 and Estrada with nine, who also had the Tigers only block of the game. Marshall shot 4 of 7 from the free-throw line and 17 of 47 for total shots.

The Tigers will be on the road for their next game as they travel to Fairmont on Tuesday.

Pipestone 22 20 — 42

Marshall 17 26 — 43

MARSHALL: Sueker 1-8 0-0 3, Estrada 3-5 0-0 9, Hilgemann 4-12 3-6 12, H. Meier 7-17 1-1 15, Andries 2-2 0-0 4. TOTALS: 17-47 4-7 43.

3-POINTERS: 5-18 (Estrada 3-4, Sueker 1-6, Hilgemann 1-6). REBOUNDS: 29 (H. Meier 12). ASSISTS: 9 (Estrada 4). STEALS: 9 (H. Meier 3). BLOCKS: 1 (Estrada 1). FOULS: 10. TURNOVERS: 10.