Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall forward Morgan Bjella attempts a layup in the first half of a girls basketball game against Willmar in Marshall on Tuesday night. The Tigers defeated the Cardinals 62-51 for their 11th consecutive win.

MARSHALL — Some scrappy defense and clutch shots down the stretch made the difference for the No. 5 Marshall girls basketball team on Thursday night as the Tigers took down Willmar for their 11th consecutive victory, 62-51.

The Cardinals entered the game at just 8-8 on the season but had been on a hot streak as of late, winning five of their last six games and taking each of the last four wins by 15 or more points.

The Cardinals came within one possession, 49-47, with five minutes to go. Yet, Morgan Bjella nailed a clutch 3-pointer from the wing to extend Marshall’s lead to 5 points. Bjella finished as the game’s second-leading scorer with 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting. She also had a block on the defensive end.

The game remained between 2 and 5 points for until Taleigha Bigler stole an inbound pass and found Reese Drake for an and-1 and a 6-point Tiger lead. Drake then stripped the ball from the Willmar point guard on the following possession to give Marshall a 59-51 lead with two minutes remaining.

Drake banked in a 3-pointer from way downtown as the shot clock expired to give Marshall a 62-51 lead with 18 seconds remaining. Reese Graven deflected the proceeding inbound and Drake recovered the loose ball to ice the game.

“We made some good plays down the stretch and we also had a little luck with that shot at the end of the shot clock,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said. “That was pretty fortunate in that regard, but again, I thought our pressure really ended up wearing them down at the end and we were able to come up with some easy baskets.”

Willmar scored the game’s first points on the opening possession but the Tigers responded quickly. Bjella hit a shot from the low block to tie the game and Drake stole the Cardinals’ inbound pass. After waiting to set up the halfcourt offense, Drake missed a shot down low but got her own rebound and finished the and-1.

Bjella hit another layup before the Cardinals rallied to tie the game up at 7-7. The teams went back and forth until a 3-pointer from Maycee Gustafson and a layup from Liza Gustafson gave the Cardinals a 16-11 lead. Drake responded with a 3-pointer but another pair of free throws from Maycee Gustafson kept Willmar’s lead intact.

A big part of Willmar’s early success came down to the Cardinals’ ability to be disruptive on the defensive end. Even when they weren’t forcing turnovers, Willmar made Marshall uncomfortable by tipping passes and playing tight defense to knock the ball loose from the ballhandler.

“Willmar did a nice job of closing up passing lanes and really made it difficult for us,” Westby said, adding that the Cardinals’ rebounding also kept the game close. “Especially in the offensive end early on, they had four kids going to the boards and we didn’t deal with that very well. It was better in the second half, but I thought Willmar was certainly ready to play.”

Willmar finished the game with 14 offensive rebounds to Marshall’s 10 and held a 35-29 advantage overall on the glass. Reese Drake’s 13 total rebounds and three offensive boards were both team-highs. Kennedy Drake and Bjella tied as Marshall’s second-leading rebounders with four each.

The Tigers experienced a bit of déjà vu to start the second half. Like the first half, Bjella scored the first points of the second from the low post. Also like the first half, Reese Drake stole the following inbound, missed the shot and grabbed her own rebound. While she couldn’t convert on the putback the second time around, she drew a foul and knocked down a free throw for a 33-29 Marshall lead two minutes after the break.

On the other end of the court, the Cardinals cut Marshall’s lead back to a point with a 3-point play but a corner 3 from Gillingham and a Bjella free throw put Marshall up by two possessions yet again.

Willmar found itself back on top after a layup six minutes into the second half gave the Cardinals a 37-36 advantage. Yet, Halla Casavan responded with a close-range shot to regain Marshall’s lead. After Casavan scored again to make it a two-possession game, Reese Drake stole another inbound, tiptoed along the sideline to keep the ball inbounds and passed the ball to Bigler for a transition layup to further the Marshall lead.

After another Willmar bucket, Casavan scored her third and fourth baskets of the game on consecutive possessions to put Marshall up 46-41 with under nine minutes remaining.

In addition to her efforts on the glass, Reese Drake neared a triple-double on the day. She led all scorers with 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting and also dished out a game-high seven assists with just one turnover. On the defensive end, her six steals helped Marshall to a 9-22 advantage in the turnover battle.

Reese Drake was far from the only Tiger making a difference in the turnover battle. Kennedy Drake and Graven each finished with three steals while Bigler was consistently able to apply pressure on the ball and disrupt passing lanes.

“I thought it was [Drake, Graven and Bigler], they made some drops and put themselves in front of people. We were fortunate Willmar tried to make a couple of passes that they probably shouldn’t have at that point and those kids were there to get some steals for us, which we really needed at that point,” Westby said.

With eight minutes remaining in the first half, Graven hit a tying layup and Bjella converted the go-ahead basket for a 22-20 Tiger lead. The Tigers held the Cardinals scoreless for another two minutes and a Paige Gillingham push shot and Graven floater completed an 8-0 Tiger run.

Marshall led by as many as 7 points in the first half, 30-23, but the Cardinals closed out the half on a high note. Willmar converted on a layup and a 4-point play to head into the locker room on a 7-0 run trailing by just a point, 30-29.

Marshall now sits at 11-1 on the season and remains undefeated since its season-opener loss to No. 4 Alexandria on Nov. 28. The Tigers will look to capture their 12th consecutive victory when they head west into South Dakota to do battle with the Sioux Falls Washington Warriors on Thursday at 5 p.m. The Warriors are currently 5-3 on the season.

“It’ll be a physical game on Thursday and I thought this game was physical. Underneath [the basket], you had to earn it to get a basket inside. I thought it was a really physical game tonight,” Westby said.

Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall forward Morgan Bjella attempts a layup in the first half of a girls basketball game against Willmar in Marshall on Tuesday night. The Tigers defeated the Cardinals 62-51 for their 11th consecutive win.