Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Bryce Lance goes up for a layup during their game against Willmar on Tuesday. The Tigers defeated the Cardinals 67-51.

MARSHALL – After opening its season with a pair of victories, the Marshall boys basketball team continued its homestand on Tuesday night and hosted a Willmar Cardinals squad that was still in search of its first win of the year.

The Tigers knew things weren’t going to come easy, and found themselves with an uphill battle trailing at halftime. Forcing themselves to dig deep, Marshall weathered the first-half storm and unfurled a second-half comeback that saw the Tigers overcome an eight-point deficit and rally past the Cardinals 67-51.

Marshall coach Travis Carroll said while he was proud of the way his team battled in the second half, he knew the first half was something they can learn from and need to improve on.

“In the first half, we had quite a few struggles and we need to do a better job of working through those struggles in our future games. Defensively, giving up 36 points [in a half] it’s going to be hard to win games giving up that many points in a half. We need to be able to fight through that in the first half of a game and lower that number so that the deficit isn’t as big as what we had at halftime,” Carroll said. “But I thought the kids came out with a good energy in the second half, they did a good job of locking in on the defensive end of the floor and that defense turned into some offense for us and we were able to get some energy going in the second half. It was important for our guys to fight through the adversity of the first half and find a way to win the game. It was a disappointing first half, and I was definitely proud of the kids for the way they came out in the second half, but we just showed that we have a lot to work on and improve on going forward.”

Tight play to start

The back-and-forth play in the first half was evident from the opening possession, as Marshall held a slim 9-7 lead before a 3-pointer from Josh Baker pushed the Tigers lead to 18-12 with 11:40 left in the first half. The Cardinals would respond, though, scoring the next five points to make it a one-point game before later tying things back up at 25 apiece with 5:03 to go.

Willmar kept up its momentum, taking the lead back before reeling off a 9-2 run to close the opening half and take a 36-28 advantage going into the locker rooms.

Second-half

comeback

In need of a spark, Marshall slowly chipped away at Willmar’s lead in the opening stages of the second half before a trio of layups from Matt Hmielewski and Bryce Lance cut the deficit to one at 41-40 before a Noah Puetz steal and layup gave the Tigers the lead.

Marshall’s offense continued to roll throughout the next several minutes, thanks to some stifling defense and quick transition play. Layups from Chase Douglas and Yahya Black would help give Marshall its first double-digit lead of the night at 52-41 just past the midway point of the frame.

Despite the quick turnaround, Willmar continued to battle over the next few minutes, as a Cardinals layup at the 6:35 mark broke a nearly 10-minute scoring drought. But Marshall wasn’t going to let the Cardinals gain any inch of momentum, as the Tigers pushed their advantage to as many as 21 en route to the 16-point come-from-behind victory.

The Tigers were able to outscore the Cardinals 39-15 in the second half to fuel the rally. Carroll said their ability to communicate well was a strong factor for their turnaround on both ends of the floor.

“Our kids were communicating well and just working harder in the second half. In the first half, we just weren’t giving the effort that we needed to on the defensive end of the floor and the kids did a much better job of giving a better effort in the second half,” Carroll said. “It’s amazing how communication and effort can lead to what we saw on the scoreboard in the second half and it’s something that we need to build on and hopefully can improve on going forward.”

Lance led the way for the Tigers with 16 points while Baker added 14 and Puetz had 12. Puetz led in rebounds with eight while Black added seven. Puetz also led in assists with three.

As a team, Marshall shot 31-of-63 from the field (49.2%) and made 3 of 9 from the free-throw line (33.3%). The Tigers held Willmar to 40.9% shooting (18-of-44).

Up next

Marshall (3-0) will hit the road to play in the Big South Showcase on Saturday against St. Peter in Fairmont at 11:30 a.m. Carroll said they’ll need to match the Saints’ energy level in both halves if they want to come away with a win.

“St. Peter is a very good basketball team and play with great energy and I think we found out with the first half of this game that we needed to do a better job of playing together as a team and playing with energy,” Carroll said. “We need to bring that for two halves because if we don’t, it could be a tough game for us on Saturday.”

Marshall 67, Willmar 51

Willmar 36 15 – 51

Marshall 28 39 – 67

Scoring: Marshall (Lance 7-11, 2-5 16; Baker 6-11, 0-0 14; Puetz 6-13, 0-0 12; Hmielewski 4-6, 1-4 9; Black 4-8, 0-0 8; Douglas 3-5, 0-0 6; Kuecker 1-1, 0-0 2).

Rebounds: Marshall 33 (Puetz 8; Black 7).

Assists: Marshall 8 (Puetz 3; Black 2; Douglas, Hmielewski, Lance 1).

Steals: Marshall 12 (Baker, Lance 3; Douglas, Peutz, Pochardt 2).

Blocks: Marshall none.