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Top-ranked Tigers prevail in top-10 battle against St. Peter

Marshall pulls away early in section championship rematch

Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall forward Avery Schneekloth (right) fights through contact for a layup during the first half of a prep girls basketball game between the No. 1 Marshall Tigers and the No. 10 St. Peter Saints at Marshall High School on Thursday night.

MARSHALL — In a battle of two top-10 teams, the Marshall girls basketball team showed that there’s a big gap between No. 1 and No. 10. The Tigers led St. Peter by as many as 23 points in the first half and coasted to a 77-38 win in a rematch of the last two  Section 2AAA championship games. 

The Tigers had defeated St. Peter 61-45 in the 2023 section championship, but lost each of their four matchups against the Saints last year, including a 58-51 loss at Gustavus Adolphus College with a state championship berth on the line. Marshall forward Avery Fahl said those losses gave Marshall a little extra to play for on Tuesday.

“We really wanted to beat them, and I think we played really well as a team together,” Fahl said.

Leading 7-4, Marshall started to pull away when Reese Drake knocked down a tough layup and assisted an Avery Fahl basket to make the score 13-4. A

After St. Peter broke up the run with a basket from Annika Southworth, Avery Schneekloth drew in the defense to set up a dime to Taleigha Bigler in the corner for 3 and a Reese Drake transition layup brought Marshall’s lead up to double figures, 18-7, with 10 minutes remaining in the first half. 

If that lead wasn’t enough, Marshall answered a Southworth layup with a 13-0 run to consolidate all momentum on its side.

Schneekloth started the Tiger run with a layup before assisting a Fahl 3-pointer, and then came up with a steal to set up a Gillingham transition layup. 

Schneekloth finished with a game-high five assists and no turnovers. As a team, Marshall won the turnover battle with eight turnovers to St. Peter’s 24. Paige Gillingham was a large part of that equation, accounting for four steals. 

A pair of layups from Bigler and Drake, broken up by a Gillingham putback basket, made the score 31-19 before St. Peter ended the Marshall run with a pair of free throws with four minutes remaining in the half. 

“I think we’re a very unselfish team in that we love to make that extra pass, and that helps us find the open person for those easy layups,” Drake said when asked about the driving force for Marshall’s run. 

The selflessness showed on the box score, with five Tigers scoring in double figures. Drake led the team with 19 points on 9 of 13 shooting while Gillingham added another 15 points on 7 of 14 shooting. Bigler and Schneekloth each added another 13 points while Fahl rounded out the group with 10.

While Fahl has primarily been a post player for the Tigers, she looked confident in her shot from long range on Tuesday. She knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the first half on five attempts.

“When Reese, Taleigha and all of our point guards drive, it’s really easy for them to kick it out and for me to shoot a 3. But yeah, we work on everything in practice,” Fahl said. 

As a team, Marshall shot 9 of 30 from 3-point range (30%) and 48% from the field. Defensively, the Tigers limited St. Peter to 29% shooting on 17 attempts from beyond the arc, and 30% shooting from the field. 

Schneekloth caught fire for Marshall in the second half. After scoring 2 points in the first half, she had a sequence of back-to-back layups, a steal and another layup to score 6 points on three possessions. She then assisted a Drake layup after a Gillingham steal on the next trip down the court, and a Drake 3 gave Marshall its first lead of more than 30 points at 51-19. 

Gillingham finished one board shy of a double-double, grabbing seven offensive rebounds and two defensive to lead the Tigers to an 18-14 edge on the offensive glass. Bigler also grabbed six total rebounds, but St. Peter maintained a narrow 31-29 advantage on the boards overall.

St. Peter called a timeout with four minutes remaining, trailing 68-36, when the Tigers started to work in their reserves. A Schneekloth 3-pointer two minutes later brought running clock into play, at which point the rest of the Tigers went to the bench with a 71-36 lead. 

Gillingham hit a fadeaway to get the Tigers on the board first after the opening tip off. Southworth answered on the opposite end but Gillingham hit a putback to give the Tigers the lead once again.

With 11 seconds on the clock before halftime, Reese Drake muscled her way through contact for a layup to send the Tigers into the locker room with a 37-13 lead. Fahl, Gillingham and Drake each scored 10 points in the Tigers’ well-balanced first-half effort while Southworth accounted for 7 of the Saints’ 13 points. 

St. Peter scored the first points of the second half when Nora Whipps hit a 3-pointer from the wing, but a technical foul on the Saints’ bench sent Bigler to the line, where she converted one of her two attempts. 

Southworth tried to snatch back some momentum for the Saints by hitting a 3 to bring her team within 20 points. Yet, another Bigler free throw brought Marshall right back above the threshold and the Tigers never looked back.

Marshall improved to a perfect 13-0 on the season with the win. Still, the Tigers have some more tests on the schedule ahead, with a rematch against St. Peter and another game against No. 4 Orono looming on the schedule. For now, Marshall will focus on its next game against Redwood Valley (10-3) at Marshall High School on Friday at 6 p.m.

“We just have to get better every single day, no matter what,” Fahl said of the road ahead.

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