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PREP BOYS BASKETBALL: Marshall uses strong first half push to roll past Hermantown

Photo by Jake Przytarski Marshall’s Matt Onken puts up a layup during their game against Hermantown on Friday. The Tigers defeated the Hawks 81-63.

MARSHALL – The Marshall boys basketball team improved to 5-2 on the season on Friday with a well-rounded 81-63 win over the Hermantown Hawks in the first round of the Borch’s Holiday Classic.

Helping to pave the way to victory for the Tigers was Matt Onken, who finished the night with 25 points on 11 of 14 from the field – culminating in a special performance for the senior forward according to Marshall coach Travis Carroll.

“Matt played well tonight offensively,” said Carroll. “We thought he played under control. He did a good job of reading the defense and (was) able to get some good action to the rim. Matt’s a very valuable piece for us each game, whether it’s on the offensive or defensive end, and you know Matt definitely had a pretty special night on the offensive end tonight.”

Making his presence felt early on both ends of the floor to begin the contest, Onken picked up four of the team’s first six points and added a block to give the Tigers an early 6-0 lead. The Hawks would respond with a short run of their own to trim the deficit to a pair at 8-6, but the Marshall offense re-emerged behind strong outside shooting from Bryce Paulsen and a 3-point play by Onken to push the lead to 18-9 and force a Hermantown timeout.

For the rest of the half, the Tigers took advantage of the Hawks’ short bench by applying stifling pressure on the Hawks via the full-court press and turned multiple turnovers into fastbreak points, pushing the team to its largest lead up to that point at 36-18.

“Unfortunately for Hermantown they were down a guy,” said Carroll. “Their first guy off the bench wasn’t here due to injury and that definitely put us in a situation where we had to look to up the pressure. Anytime that a team’s depth is effected, it’s a situation where we definitely have to look to make it more of a full-court game and try to get it up and down, and our guys did a good job of that in the first half.”

The Hawks were able to outscore the Tigers 10-4 in the remaining minutes of the half, but Marshall remained in control with a 40-28 lead.

Out of the half, the Tigers returned to form with a 7-0 run, but the momentum was short-lived as the Hawks began to take advantage of the Tigers’ press and use it against them to create easy baskets. With the lead down to only 10 after holding a 57-36 early in the second half, Carroll elected to ease up on the pressure and focus on half-court defense.

“(In) the second half we saw Hermantown do a really good job with our press and they turned our press into offense,” said Carroll. “Our press wasn’t very effective in the second half, and we had to get away from it and just get back to playing half-court defense.”

Proud of the way his team was able to bounce back after beginning the second half facing a steep deficit, Hermantown coach and Marshall Tiger alumni Andy Fenske has come to expect the high level of resolve exhibited by his team, and tipped his cap to the Tigers for preventing them from completing the comeback in the end.

“More often than not we handle that adversity well,” said Fenske. “I mean in every game we’ve had so far we’ve trailed at some point by eight, nine, ten if not late double-digit points, and usually we respond well to it. This time we just couldn’t get things going. They were shutting our big scorers down and making it real tough for us and you know they just really put us outside of our comfort zone.”

Weathering the storm and finding their rhythm again down the stretch, the Tigers cruised to the final buzzer with a comfortable 81-63 win with three different players reaching double figures in scoring. Onken finished with a team-leading 25 points, while Noah Peutz and Paulsen combined for 30 points with 16 and 14, respectively.

The Tigers will be back in action today to conclude the Borch’s Holiday Classic when they take on Sioux Falls Lincoln at 4 p.m. Looking ahead, Carroll is hoping to see his team improve on their rebounding and defending the 3-point line.

“Our rebounding needs to be better,” said Carroll. “We’re going to have to defend the 3-point line. Sioux Falls Lincoln has a player that’s a very good from behind the 3-point line.”

Marshall 81, Hermantown 63

Hermantown 28 35 – 63

Marshall 40 41 – 81

SCORING: Marshall (Onken 11-14, 3-4 25; Peutz 7-11, 1-1 16; Paulsen 5-12, 2-2 14; Hmielewski 3-9, 2-2 9; Lance 2-6, 4-4 8; Allex 2-3, 0-0 4; Jacobson 1-1, 0-0 2).

REBOUNDS: Marshall 30 (Peutz 6; Onken, Paulsen 5; Steinbach 3; Lance, Ehlers, Allex, Baker 2; Hilgemann, Hmielewski, Jacobson).

ASSISTS: Marshall 15 (Onken 5; Peutz, Allex 3; Aufenthie, Baker, Lance, Paulsen 1).

STEALS: Marshall 5 (Peutz 2; Allex, Aufenthie, Baker 1).

BLOCKS: Marshall none.

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