Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Ashleigh Steinbach (4) tries to drive past Mankato East’s Mackenzie Schweim (22) during their Section 2AAA championship game on Thursday at MSU Mankato.

MANKATO — Both the third-seeded Marshall and top-seeded Mankato East girls basketball teams entered their matchup red-hot, with each side winning at least three games in a row and 11 of its last 12. And with a trip to the state tournament on the line, both teams knew things weren’t going to come easy.

Marshall battled early, but a strong push in the first half gave Mankato East a double-digit halftime lead and the Cougars didn’t look back en route to a 66-36 victory in the Section 2AAA championship on Thursday at MSU Mankato.

Marshall coach Dan Westby credited Mankato East for challenging them early and felt his team just couldn’t get in a rhythm on either side of the floor.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve been on the end of one of these,” Westby said. “I think it was a combination of great play by Mankato East, their kids came in here ready to go and once we got behind it just felt like we were pressing to try and do things and never really were able to get anything going on either end and it felt like East really took advantage of that.”

Both teams traded baskets to start, but Mankato East would get a layup and a 3-pointer to highlight a 12-2 run by the Cougars and give them a 15-5 lead with 12:30 left in the first half. Marshall would draw the deficit to 17-9 on a Leah Jones layup with 7:53 left, but Mankato East continued to create separation, using a trio of layups to make it 26-9 with 3:25 left. Marshall would then go on a small run, with Lauren Wherry getting a layup to trim the deficit to 12 at 26-14, but the Cougars closed the half with a pair of baskets to take a 30-14 advantage going into the locker rooms.

The two teams exchanged points to start the second half, but Mankato East maintained its lead, getting a 3-pointer before a 3-point play made it 41-20 with 13:02 left. Mankato East kept attacking, going on a 14-5 run before Marshall answered with a 3-pointer from Brooke Andries to draw the deficit to 55-28, but MHS couldn’t get any closer en route to the 66-36 final.

Bri Simpson led Marshall with 20 points while Andries added five and Leah Jones had four. Megan Wegner and Leah Jones led in rebounds with three each while Ashleigh Steinbach led in assists with four. As a team, Marshall shot just 35% (13 of 37) from the field, including 3 of 11 (27%) from 3-point range.

Defensively, Marshall allowed Mankato East to shoot 59% (27 of 46) from the field, including 8 of 20 (40%) from 3-point range and forced four turnovers.

Saluting the seniors

With the loss, Marshall’s season comes to an end with an overall record of 23-6. Thursday’s game was also the final one for Marshall’s four seniors in Steinbach, Danya Estrada, Andrea Jones and Wegner.

Westby said all of them brought a lot to the program over the years and they’re going to be missed.

“They’re going to be missed; Ashleigh’s been one of our scoring leaders all year long and put a lot of points on the board for us. Megan’s been a great team player for us in practice and just really brought her best effort every day and that’s going to be difficult to replace,” Westby said. “Danya’s season ended early in terms of playing-wise but she’s been there supporting us every day. And Andrea has always been someone who helps keep some perspective in what we’re doing. They’ve been a great group, they’ve put in a lot of time throughout the summer months as well and it’s really going to be difficult to replace them.”

Mankato East 66, Marshall 36

Marshall 14 22 – 36

Mankato East 30 36 – 66

Scoring: Marshall (Simpson 6-12, 6-7 20; Andries 2-3, 0-0 5; L. Jones 2-4, 0-1 4; Bednarek 1-4, 1-2 3; Wherry 1-1, 0-0 2; Panka 1-3, 0-0 2).

Rebounds: Marshall 16 (Wegner, L. Jones 3; Steinbach, Panka, Wendorff 2).

Assists: Marshall 12 (Steinbach 4; Bednarek, Simpson 3).

Steals: Marshall 1 (Bednarek).