Photo by Jake McNeill Above: Marshall’s Reese Drake dribbles the ball during the Class AAA championship game against Benilde-St. Margaret’s at the University of Minnesota’s Williams Arena in Minneapolis on March 15. Drake was named the Independent’s Girls Basketball Player of the Year, marking her second consecutive season earning a Player of the Year nod after being named the Girls Volleyball Player of the Year for the fall season.

MARSHALL — The 2024-25 prep sports season has been a busy one for Reese Drake. After helping the Marshall Tigers reach the state championship game during volleyball season in the fall, she had a quick turnaround before functioning as a key component of the Tigers’ path to the girls basketball state championship game a season later. While the Tigers finished as state runners-up in both sports, Drake’s impact was undeniable, earning her the nod as the Independent’s 2024-25 girls basketball Player of the Year.

Drake thanked her coaches for the work that they put in, both during the season and over the summer, to put the Tigers in a position to reach the levels of success that they attained.

The selection marks Drake’s second consecutive season being selected as a Player of the Year, as she also earned the same honor for her performance as an outside hitter for the Marshall volleyball season in the fall.

“It’s an honor to get both of these because I love both of these sports and I’ve always worked hard in both of them,” Drake said. “I give 110% every day, so I feel fortunate to have the great teammates and coaches that push me to be my best.”

Following the Tigers’ state volleyball championship loss to Alexandria, it was a quick turnaround into basketball season. The Tigers resumed practice shortly after finishing volleyball season and started playing regular-season games just over two weeks later. Despite the lack of rest, the Tigers were firing from all cylinders from the first tip of game 1 and opened the season on a 21-game win streak.

“Only having a week of practice before our first game, we knew we had to be ready to go from the start,” Drake said, adding that the team felt ready for the season to start from day 1.

Part of that could be attributed to the competition on the slate. Just a few weeks after falling to Alexandria in the state volleyball championship, the Tigers hosted the Cardinals for their girls basketball season opener. Then ranked No. 3 in the state, Alexandria held a 9-point lead at halftime but the Tigers stormed ahead after the break, led by 23 points from Taleigha Bigler and 21 from Drake, including a pair of game-sealing free throws for a 75-70 win.

Drake was a large part of the Marshall girls basketball team’s offensive production in her sophomore season, averaging team-highs with 14.7 points and 3.9 steals per game while also contributing three assists and 5.1 rebounds per contest.

Despite the high standards she set in her previous season, Drake found a way to improve across the board. Her 19 points, 4.6 assists, six rebounds and 3.5 steals per game were all team-highs this season. Her efficiency also improved, shooting 53/43/71% splits this season after putting together 46/35/69% splits as a sophomore.

“I like to work on all parts of the game and I work hard to be an all-around player,” Drake said. “A lot of times this year, teams would focus on me and Taleigha defensively, trying to stop us, so that’s where I would try to create those opportunities for my teammates to score as well.”

Marshall head coach Dan Westby attributed Drake’s improvements to the confidence she had built the year before, as well as her attitude.

“I think coming into this season, she realized that she was able to do a number of different things and her comfort level is always so good out there,” Westby said. “She’s never too high, never too low. She stays pretty even-keeled, and I think she’s very comfortable on the court.”

The Tigers graduated three starters last year, including Reese’s sister Kennedy Drake, Reese Graven and Morgan Bjella. They also graduated a key player off the bench in Halla Casavan. Still, the passing of Drake and Bigler in the backcourt helped Avery Schneekloth and Avery Fahl fit right into their new roles as starters.

“I feel like Taleigha and I have played together for many years and we just make each other better and have a really good feel of where one another is going to be on the court,” Drake said. “I feel like having that connection helps and allows us to find our teammates… We didn’t care who got points. We were all just trying to make that extra pass and take the best open shots, so I feel like we’re all pretty close, whether it’s at school or on the basketball court.”

The Tigers were a quality team in Drake’s sophomore year, posting a 21-9 record and reaching the Section 2AAA championship game before falling to St. Peter. This year, however, they turned into a juggernaut in 2AAA and prevented many teams from even keeping games competitive. They finished the season at 29-2.

“I feel like part of it was last year, we had just fallen short in the section championship so we all had that drive to make it to the state tournament this year,” Drake said of the team’s leap forward. “I feel like all season long, we played with grit and that kind of helped us to the record we had.”

Despite finishing the regular season at 27-1, the Tigers were given the No. 3 seed in the state tournament. Still, they looked every bit one of the state’s top two teams in their tournament run, beating No. 6 Rock Ridge 67-51 in the quarterfinals and No. 7 Cretin-Derham Hall 57-48 to get to the state championship, where they fell to top-seeded Benilde-St. Margaret’s 73-57.

“We’re all going to continue to grind in the summer and the season to hopefully not fall short again. But getting as far as we did was a huge accomplishment,” Drake said.