Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall forward Paige Gillingham (15) attempts a putback layup during the first half of a prep girls basketball game against Windom on Tuesday at Marshall High School. The No. 2 Tigers defeated Windom to pick up their sixth consecutive win to start the season.

MARSHALL — Paige Gillingham’s tenacious offensive rebounding and Taleigha Bigler’s hot hand from 3-point range against Windom on Tuesday night showed exactly why the No. 2 Marshall girls basketball team is ranked as one of the top teams in Class 3A. The Tigers extended their lead to double digits within the first few minutes of the game and never looked back, defeating the Eagles 85-48 to pick up their sixth consecutive win to start the season.

The Tigers jumped out to an early lead when a Paige Gillingham offensive rebound set up a Taleigha Bigler 3, and Reese Drake pushed the ball in transition to set up an Avery Schneekloth layup. After Windom got on the board with a layup, the Tigers went on an 11-1 run to set the tone for the game with a 16-3 lead.

Defense and tenacity were the story of the Tigers’ early run. They limited the Eagles to one field goal in the game’s first six minutes and consistently crashed the boards. In particular, Gillingham set up opportunities for herself and her teammates by grabbing offensive rebounds, taking the shot herself when she had room and kicking it out to an open teammate on the perimeter when there was too much traffic in the paint. 

Gillingham finished the night with five offensive rebounds and seven total rebounds, as well as a game-high 25 points on 11 of 18 shooting from the field and 2 of 6 shooting from 3-point range. Her three assists tied her with Schneekloth for second on the team to Bigler’s five.

“I think as a team, we crashed the boards really well,” Gillingham said of the Tigers’ rebounding efforts. “We just all crashed the boards and it set up a lot of open shots and open looks… We got those putbacks, got those passes out, we played really well as a team.”

Windom responded to Marshall with a run of its own, scoring 7 unanswered points to cut the deficit to 16-10. Yet, Taleigha Bigler ended the drought with a 3-pointer and knocked down another after a Windom layup to bring Marshall’s lead back up to double figures at 22-12. 

Bigler’s shooting was a key factor in Marshall’s spacing throughout the night. While the rest of the team shot a respectable 6 of 18 from beyond the arc, Bigler shot 6 of 10 to finish with more 3-point makes than Windom did as a team (4 of 11). Bigler finished the night with 20 points as well as four rebounds, and she tied Schneekloth with a game-high five steals to lead Marshall to a 6-16 advantage in the turnover battle. 

“Our pressure generated some turnovers and that was big for us,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said. “Taleigha knocked down some big 3s in the first half, but it was just a good team effort. We were able to play a lot of kids and just a good overall group effort.”

As a group, Marshall played selflessly all night long and consistently looked for the extra pass. As a result, they finished with 16 assists compared to Windom’s six.

“I think this is really an unselfish group and I thought our kids really did a good job of making the extra pass,” Westby said. “There were a number of times we found people underneath the basket and that’s going to be a big part of what we do down the road.”

The Tigers extended their lead to 31-16 and, after a brief Windom resurgence, led by as many as 17 points, 38-21. The Eagles answered the Tigers’ lead-extending 3 with one of their own, but a pair of layups from Kyah Pinckney and Gillingham sent Marshall into halftime with a 42-24 lead. 

Bigler knocked down five 3-pointers in the first half to lead the Tigers’ scoring efforts with 17 points, while Gillingham and Drake added in another 11 and 8 points respectively. For the Eagles, Hannah Dauer led the way with 7 points.

The Tigers showed no signs of taking their foot off the gas after their sizeable halftime lead, with Gillingham converting a fastbreak layup and Drake coming away with a steal to set up one of her own on Marshall’s first two offensive possessions to extend their lead to 22 points.

Drake was efficient for the Tigers in the win, scoring 17 points on 7 of 10 shooting from the field and knocking down each of her two free throw attempts. Her five rebounds also tied her with Schneekloth for second on the team. 

Gillingham and Pinckney hit consecutive layups for the Tigers with just over nine minutes left in the game, extending the Marshall lead to 76-39 and triggering the running clock for the remainder of the game. Westby substituted in some of the Tigers’ deeper rotation players at the next stoppage in play and no Marshall starters played in the final six minutes.

The second-ranked Marshall Tigers improve to a perfect 6-0 after handing Windom its first loss of the season after a 4-0 start. Only two of Marshall’s wins came by fewer than 20 points. 

“We’re all really close. There’s no drama, no fighting, no nothing. We all get along really well in practice and have fun,” Gillingham said when asked about the key to the Tigers’ hot start. “We move the ball well, we all talk on defense and we know when to make our drops…. We’ve all played together so that carries over really well and just us having that chemistry helps.”

The Tigers will aim to keep their perfect season alive when they go on the road to face Worthington (1-5) on Friday at 7:15 p.m. From there, the Tigers will prepare to take on No. 5 Hill-Murray (2-1) on Saturday afternoon.

“If you look at our schedule, we’ve really got some tough games, and Windom’s had a great year, so we felt it was really important for us to really work hard at trying to wear them down,” Westby said. “We tried to switch kids off on their two ball-handlers in an effort to try and do that… It was a good effort by our kids and we’re going to have to just keep working hard to get better. We’ve got a tough schedule and this was one of those games that we looked at as one we really needed to get after them and come home with a win.”