Sophomore Marshall Tiger Alex Franson (4) drives past Hutchinson’s Andrew Lipke (14) late in the second half in Saturday’s afternoon contest with the Hutchinson Tigers.

MARSHALL– The Marshall Tigers boys basketball escaped with a 60-59 victory over the Hutchinson Tigers on Saturday afternoon.

The Tigers came off a bad loss the previous day against the Worthington Trojans and started this game in the same fashion. The Marshall Tigers got down by as many as 10 points early in the first half.

“We got down by 10 in the first half which was kind of a tough start,” Tigers head coach Travis Carroll said. “Credit to our kids for embracing the half-court defense. We were really dialed in the seven to eight minutes of the half defensively. Doing that allowed us to go up by five at halftime.”

The Marshall Tigers would claw their way back into the game with timely shooting and a defensive stretch that saw Hutchinson not score the basketball for several minutes.

In the second half, the Marshall Tigers would push their lead up to 10, 54-44 with just under seven minutes remaining in the game.

Then things got a little interesting.

Hutchinson would cut the lead to five and then three with a layup, 54-51 with under two minutes left. The Tigers free throw shooting woes started to come back and Hutchinson was within a point of tying the ballgame.

Alex Franson was fouled and went to the free-throw line to shoot two. Franson hit the first but missed the second with Hutchinson gathering the rebound. With just 11 seconds left, Hutchinson called their last timeout and had the opportunity to tie or win the game.

The ball was inbounded and a clutch defensive charge was taken by Franson to give the ball back to the Marshall Tigers and an opportunity to seal the victory or so we thought.

Franson would once again sink the first free throw and missed the second. After securing the rebound, Hutchinson raced up the court by the Tigers denied a three-point try and Hutchinson scored a two-point basket to end the game losing by one, 60-59.

Omar Abdi led Marshall in scoring with 16 points and grabbed a team-high four rebounds. Franson finished with 12 points and a team-high three assists. Jackson Baynard finished with 12 points as well and would also grab four rebounds in the contest.

“In the second half we were able to push our lead up to 10,” Carroll said. “Hutchinson did a great job of fighting back. We need to continue to work on our end-of-game situations but are really proud of our kids the way they battled back today from Friday night.”

The Marshall Tigers (2-2) will now go on the road for their next contest going up against New Ulm High School on Friday evening

The first tip is at 7:15 p.m.