Photo by Chris Drummond Marshall Tigers Randi Wendorff is driving down the lane for an easy layups against the Windom Eagles on Tuesday evening.

MARSHALL — The Marshall Tigers girls basketball team used a stingy defense to defeat the Windom Eagles 68-39 on Tuesday evening.

Despite a sloppy first half from the Tigers, the Tigers held a 4-point lead at halftime 27-23. The Eagles didn’t shoot the ball well in the opening half but stayed close to the Tigers because of their ability to make free throws.

The Tigers’ defense propelled them to a lead as they contested the majority of the looks the Eagles had.

Lauren Wherry led the Tigers in scoring with 7. Abby Panka and Reese Graven had 5 points apiece in the opening half

Alivia Letcher for the Eagles had a game-high 10 points.

In the second half, the Tigers came out on a 12-4 run, led by Brooke Andries scoring 8 points in the run and forcing an Eagles timeout.

“I give all the credit to my teammates and we were just finding each other on the court,” Andries said. “We were unselfish and it wasn’t just me scoring, it was everyone.”

The press that the Tigers exhibited was starting to cause all kinds of problems for the Eagles. The Tigers turned the Eagles’ turnovers into easy baskets and extended the lead to 20 late. The Tigers’ defense forced 21 turnovers in the victory and held the Eagles to 16 second-half points.

Andries finished with a team-high 12 points. Panka had 11 points. Wherry had 9 points in the contest and Kennedy Drake had 8 points

“The first half was kinda rough,” Drake said. “We all started moving the ball well in the second half, which allowed us to get more steals and find open teammates.”

Leah Jones led the Tigers in rebounds with seven and Lexie Bednarek, and Bri Simpson both finished with a team-high four assists.

“We always feel like we need to hang out hat on defense,” Tigers head coach Dan Westby said. “We just couldn’t knock shots down in the first half. In the second half, I thought we moved the ball better and played more unselfish. We have a tough weekend of games on the road coming up with New Ulm and Fairmont. We’re gonna have to be ready to go.”

The Marshall Tigers girls’ basketball team will be back in action on Friday evening as they travel to face New Ulm High School at 7:30 p.m.