Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Emily Meier drives past a Sioux Falls Roosevelt defender during their game on Friday. The Tigers defeated the Roughriders 69-39 to close the regular season with a perfect 25-0 record.

MARSHALL — After earning its third Big South championship in six years the other night, the No. 4 Marshall girls basketball team crossed off another goal from its checklist, finishing the regular season with a perfect record with a 69-39 victory over Sioux Falls Roosevelt (S.D.) on Friday night.

Marshall coach Dan Westby said they were able to bring a lot of energy to the floor right away and felt their ability to hit shots and capitalize on turnovers helped set the tone.

“We came out with a great energy right away and I felt like our kids took control and certainly our pressure was effective and we were able to turn some of those mistakes into baskets right away,” Westby said. “I also thought we shot the ball really well; we hit a number of threes early on and it gave us that cushion and I’m happy for the job our kids did out there.”

Westby credited their success to the team’s ability to take things one game at a time throughout the entirety of the regular season.

“As I’ve said, this group has been so good because they just take one game at a time and that’s been their approach all season long and I think that’s what has allowed that to happen,” Westby said. “But that season is over now and everybody is 0-0, so we start over on Wednesday; we’re certainly proud of the fact that our kids were able to string together 25 in a row.”

Perimeter precision

Even though it was tight play in the game’s opening minutes, Marshall wasted little time catching fire on the offensive end, especially from beyond the arc. Jordyn Hilgemann got things started with back-to-back 3-pointers before Corrin Naughton and Lenei Estrada added triples of their own to give the Tigers an 18-5 lead.

Westby said his players did a good job of finding the open player early on and having them hit the shot.

“Our kids did such a nice job of finding people on the 3-point line and to our kids’ credit a number of different kids knocked shots down,” Westby said. “It was fun to watch the energy our kids started with.”

Despite Marshall’s hot start, the Tigers were forced to make some adjustments on the defensive end when they got into foul trouble. The Roughriders were able to get into the bonus with just under eight minutes left in the half as well as sending three Marshall players to the bench with a couple of fouls.

“We ended up with a much different lineup out there than we typically see, but we had a number of kids give us valuable minutes there in that first half,” Westby said. “We had three kids in foul trouble, Paige [Andries], Lenei and Corrin were all in foul trouble and those are three pretty important pieces to our team, but again the kids that filled in for them I thought did a great job.”

Marshall would be able to make those adjustments, however, and maintained at least an 18-point lead throughout the next several minutes. A layup got the Roughriders to within 16 with 3:30 left in the first half, but the Tigers answered with a layup from Abby Wendorff and a 3-pointer by Adrienne Simpson – the sixth of the opening frame for Marshall – to help give the Tigers a 46-20 lead at halftime.

Keeping

things rolling

Looking to keep their first-half momentum going, the Tigers quickly opened the second half with a 5-0 run while their defense held Sioux Falls Roosevelt without a field goal for the first four minutes of the frame.

Marshall continued to maintain its strong play on both ends of the floor, building a 31-point lead at the midway mark before a 3-point play from Wendorff made it 62-30 with six minutes to play. A 3-pointer by the Roughriders brought Sioux Falls Roosevelt to within 27, but Marshall’s reserves ran down the clock to secure the victory.

Emily Meier led the way for the Tigers with 17 points while Hilgemann added 16 and Wendorff had 12. Meier also led in rebounds with nine while Hilgemann led in assists with nine. As a team, Marshall shot 42% (26-of-62) from the field, including 50% from 3-point range (7-of-14) and 10-of-15 from the free-throw line.

Defensively, Marshall limited Sioux Falls Roosevelt to just 26% shooting from the field (12-of-46), including a 27% mark from three (7-of-26) and forced 16 turnovers.

Up next

Marshall (25-0) will find out its Section 2AAA tournament opponent today and will host an opening-round game on Wednesday. Westby said their section will be extremely tough and competitive this year and they’ll need to be focused right from the start.

“If you look at things, our section is just a meat grinder. It’s a mini state tournament, there are eight quality teams there and you’re going to have to be ready to go every night out or your season is going to be over,” Westby said. “It’s a very competitive section and we should be the No. 1 seed and we’ve earned that; we’ve gone 8-0 against section opponents and I think anytime you do that, it feels good to be that No. 1 seed, but it’s a new season come Wednesday.”

Marshall 69, Sioux Falls Roosevelt 39

Sioux Falls Roosevelt 20 19 – 39

Marshall 46 23 – 69

Scoring: Marshall (Meier 7-16, 3-3 17; Hilgemann 6-13, 2-2 16; Wendorff 5-7, 2-4 12; Sample 2-7, 0-0 5; Andries 1-2, 2-2 4; Estrada 1-3, 0-0 3; Naughton 1-4, 0-0 3; Wegner 1-4, 0-0 3; Simpson 1-2, 0-0 3; Webb 1-1, 0-0 2; Steinbach 0-0, 1-2 1).

Rebounds: Marshall 37 (Meier 9; Hilgemann 6; Wendorff 5).

Assists: Marshall 22 (Hilgemann 9; Estrada 7; Naughton 3; Sample, Wegner, Simpson 1).

Steals: Marshall 9 (Naughton, Estrada 3; Hilgemann, Simpson, Meier 1).

Blocks: Marshall none.