Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Yahya Black puts up a shot during their Section 2AAA tournament game against Worthington on Wednesday. The Tigers defeated Worthington 68-35.

MARSHALL — After rolling through the regular season to the tune of a 25-2 record, the second-seeded Marshall boys basketball team kicked off its postseason play looking to make an early statement. The Tigers did just that, as Marshall took down No. 7 seed Worthington 68-35 on Wednesday night.

Marshall coach Travis Carroll said he was pleased with their overall performance, but felt there were times in both halves where they struggled to get in a groove, particularly on the offensive side of the floor.

“We had some difficult moments at times both in the first and second half; felt like we had some empty possessions offensively where we may have had a turnover or we were kind of playing into Worthington’s hands rather than working through the possession offensively and looking to get a better shot. We definitely had some struggles on that end of the floor,” Carroll said. “Defensively, I thought our kids competed at a high level, holding them to 35 points that’s a good number to hold them to when you’re not having your best offensive night.”

Defense holds

steady in first half

Worthington would get an early lead at 3-2, but that was the only one it saw the rest of the night. Marshall’s defense held Worthington in check throughout much of the first half, as the Trojans’ first basket was their only field goal for the next five minutes.

The Tigers, meanwhile, had no trouble creating rhythm on the offensive end, as a 3-pointer from Noah Puetz gave Marshall the lead back for good before Bryce Lance got a layup to go to make it 12-3 with 13 minutes left in the first half. Worthington drew to within six a couple of minutes later, but Marshall responded with a 6-0 run capped by a 3-pointer from Konnor Aufenthie to push the Tigers advantage to 20-8 midway through the half.

Both teams would trade points over the next several minutes, but Marshall continued to maintain its lead. A layup by Lance gave the Tigers a 16-point cushion at 30-14 with four minutes to go in the frame, before Marshall took a 33-19 lead heading into the break.

Maintaining

momentum

Despite its deficit, Worthington continued to fight and came out of the gates with an early punch in the second half. The Trojans drew to within 12 in the frame’s opening minutes, but back-to-back layups from Puetz quickly pushed Marshall’s lead back to 18 at 41-23 with 11:55 to go. The Tigers kept their feet on the gas pedal the rest of the way, building a 21-point lead on a 3-pointer from Matt Hmielewski with six minutes left before ultimately earning the 68-35 victory.

Puetz led the way for the Tigers with 21 points while Lance added 14 and Josh Baker had 12. Lance led in rebounds with six while Hmielewski and Puetz led in assists with four each. As a team, Marshall shot 47.2% from the field (25 of 53), including hitting seven 3-pointers and making 11 of its 16 free throws.

Defensively, Marshall held Worthington to just 27.3% shooting (12 of 44) from the field, including just four 3-pointers while also forcing 20 turnovers.

“I thought we kind of wore them down,” Carroll said. “They came out and played extremely hard right away and we had a couple of breakdowns defensively in the first half, but it seemed like in the second half we were able to do a better job of contesting and limiting them to one shot.”

Up next

Marshall (26-2) will face No. 3 St. Peter on Saturday at 7:45 p.m. at Gustavus Adolphus College. Carroll said their biggest takeaway will be continuing to work on battling through the tougher moments of the game when they are presented.

“We need to work through the adversity,” Carroll said. “We need to work on that a little bit better because it seemed like we had some longer stretches where we had some adversity facing us and we weren’t quite able to get through those moments.”

Marshall 68, Worthington 35

Worthington 19 16 – 35

Marshall 33 35 – 68

Scoring: Marshall (Puetz 8-10, 3-4 21; Lance 5-9, 4-6 14; Baker 4-9, 2-2 12; Black 2-6, 0-0 4; Abdi 1-1, 0-0 3; Aufenthie 1-2, 0-0 3; Hmielewski 1-8, 0-0 3; Bly 1-2, 0-0 2; Runia 1-1, 0-0 2; Steinbach 1-2, 0-0 2; Toulouse 0-0, 1-2 1; Wilts 0-0, 1-2 1).

Rebounds: Marshall 34 (Lance 6; Black, Hmielewski, Steinbach 4).

Assists: Marshall 15 (Hmielewski, Puetz 4; Douglas, Lance 2; Aufenthie, Black, Pochardt 1).

Steals: Marshall none.

Blocks: Marshall none.