Marshall guard Taleigha Bigler (10) attempts a layup in the first half of the Tigers’ 41-33 win over No. 5 Grand Rapids in a Class AAA tournament consolation bracket game at the Gangelhoff Center on Thursday afternoon.

ST. PAUL — The Marshall girls basketball team got some redemption for its quarterfinals loss against top-seeded Becker by defeating No. 5 Grand Rapids 41-33 in the first round of the consolation bracket at the Gangelhoff Center Thursday afternoon.

The game was a back-and-forth affair. Neither team led by double digits at any point and rarely did a team lead by more than 5.

Both teams played physical defense and the referees were not afraid to blow the whistle. Marshall was in the bonus and shooting one-and-one free throws less than 10 minutes into the first half. Both teams finished both halves in the bonus and Marshall reached the double bonus in both halves as well. Grand Rapids finished the game with 26 fouls and Marshall finished with 14.

“We’ve been involved in games like that before this season, so we like to think we should be able to deal with that kind of game,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said. “We just felt like we left too many layups and too many missed free throws out there. You just can’t do that out there.”

As a team, the Tigers shot 6-45 from the field. Yet, their ability to go to the lane and draw contact allowed them to capitalize at the free-throw line, where they scored 27 points.

Bri Simpson led the Tigers in scoring with 11 points, followed by 9 apiece from Randi Wendorff and Taleigha Bigler. Simpson shot 9-12 from the free-throw line.

Easy buckets were hard to come by in the game. Marshall’s defense excelled at switching and fighting through ball screens while also clogging the passing lanes. Yet, some errant passes on the offensive end spoiled some Tiger scoring opportunities.

“We’ve seen our team defend well a number of times this year, so we always expect that, but the thing we talked about was that we thought Grand Rapids really defended well,” Westby said. “They were really disruptive in their half-court defense and really made it tough for us.”

Marshall finished the game with 15 turnovers and Grand Rapids finished with 14. Bigler and Simpson each finished with three steals.

The Tigers carried a 20-18 lead into the locker room for halftime thanks to a block by Leah Jones on a corner 3-pointer with 0.8 seconds left on the clock that would have given Grand Rapids a 1-point lead at the break.

Reese Drake and Simpson led Marshall’s rebounding effort with eight boards apiece, leading the Tigers to a 35-19 advantage on the glass.

Grand Rapids trailed by 5 points in the final 30 seconds. With time running down and the Thunderhawks needing a basket to stay alive, Reese Drake deflected a Grand Rapids pass and Bri Simpson recovered the ball to effectively ice the game.

Marshall (22-10) will face off against DeLaSalle in the fifth-place match at Concordia-St. Paul’s Gangelhoff Center Friday at 4 p.m.

“If you’re a competitor, winning always feels better than losing,” Westby said about the team staying motivated in the consolation bracket. “Certainly, it’s tough to recover a little over 24 hours later, that’s tough, but again, you still have got a job to do. I don’t think there was any effects of that with our kids, I thought our kids were ready to go.”