Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall guard Taleigha Bigler (11) shoots a floater during a prep girls basketball game against Harrisburg (S.D.) in Marshall on Thursday night.

MARSHALL — The suffocating full-court press of the Marshall girls basketball team set the tone on Thursday night when they hosted the Harrisburg Tigers in non-conference play. Marshall forced 31 turnovers on the night, resulting in a 59-44 win.

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“We take pride in our defense. I feel like Marshall basketball is just turning defense into offense, so we have a lot of fun putting pressure on teams,” Marshall guard Taleigha Bigler said.

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While Marshall won by double digits, they coasted to victory in the second half. Marshall built up a 37-16 lead at the break and led by as many as 28 points in the second half before working its bench into the game.

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While Marshall had some shooting struggles early on, its full-court press was effective from the jump to keep them in the game. Marshall forced a handful of turnovers and a pair of 10-second violations in the game’s opening minutes to keep the visiting Tigers in check.

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Logan Durnil scored the game’s first points with a layup, but an Avery Schneekloth free throw put Marshall on the board and Bailey Nubile sprayed a 3 to give Marshall the lead before tipping a pass to force a 10-second violation.

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Schneekloth then followed up with a layup and blocked a shot on the other end, and Bigler came up with a steal on a Harrisburg outlet pass attempt to set up an Avery Fahl 3-pointer to prompt a Harrisburg timeout with Marshall on a 9-0 run five minutes into the game.

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As a team, Marshall logged 21 steals in the win, including seven from Bigler, five from Reese Drake and four and three from Nubile and Schneekloth, respectively.

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“I think we’re pretty quick this year, so if we make our drops and just put effort into our press, we’ll get a lot of those tips and steals,” Bigler said.

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A 3-pointer from Durnil ended the drought coming out of the huddle, but Marshall didn’t let Harrisburg gain any momentum. Bigler pulled up off the dribble for a 3 of her own on the opposite end and answered a layup from Claire McCallum with a second consecutive 3 to bring Marshall’s lead to 8 points.

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Bigler finished the night with 14 points on 6 of 15 shooting from the field and 2 of 5 shooting from 3. Her four assists trailed only Drake’s five.

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Also contributing to the scoring load, Schneekloth finished with 13 points on 6 of 12 shooting while Fahl and Maddie Panka each added another 8. As a team, Marshall shot 38% from the field and 7 of 28 from 3, with 11 different players having scored for the team already this season.

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“We’re all really close this year, so we don’t care who gets the points as long as we get a win,” Bigler said. “Just getting as many assists and shots up as we can is our goal.”

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Marshall’s lead eclipsed the double-digit mark when Schneekloth knocked down a push shot and a layup on consecutive possessions, bringing the score to 19-8 with 11 minutes to play. Drake kept the momentum flowing with a perfect outlet pass from three-quarters court to assist a Sydney Towne layup for a 21-8 lead.

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The hometown Tigers’ 6-0 scoring run was broken up when Durnil scored consecutive buckets and came up with a steal to get Harrisburg in transition for a Taylor Nedved layup, cutting the deficit back to single digits. Yet, Bigler knocked down a floater and blew by a defender for a layup when Harrisburg called a timeout trailing 27-14.

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Durnil was the game’s leading scorer with 26 points on 11 of 23 shooting with four 3-pointers. No other Harrisburg players scored more than 4 points, and the team as a whole shot 35% from the field, 22% from 3-point range and 1 of 3 from the free-throw line.

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Coming out of the huddle, Drake banged home a 3 after pump-faking her way past a defender and Panka spun past a defender on the baseline for a reverse layup. Another layup from Bigler and a Schneekloth free throw further increased Marshall’s lead. Schneekloth hit another layup before Bigler tipped an offensive rebound out to Brynn Webb, who was promptly fouled and knocked down both free throws in the bonus to send Marshall into halftime with a 21-point cushion.

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Nubile grabbed three offensive and three defensive rebounds to lead Marshall’s effort on the glass while Drake added another four boards. Harrisburg outrebounded Marshall 38-22, with a 16-8 edge in offensive rebounds.

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Marshall and Harrisburg both went scoreless for the first two-and-a-half minutes of the second half before Panka knocked down a layup off an assist from Bigler, and Fahl answered a Durnil 3 with one of her own. The Tigers then came up with a steal on the full-court press to set up a Schneekloth layup, bringing the lead to 45-19, when the bench started to work its way into the game.

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Ramping up the pressure

The full-court press has been a consistent staple of Marshall girls basketball in recent years, and it’s been as effective as ever this season. Through the first two games, Marshall has forced a total of 55 turnovers with 36 steals. On the offensive end, Marshall has coughed up the ball just 19 times, resulting in six steals for their opponents.

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“We practice our press a lot, and we just work hard in practice, so that carries over to games,” Bigler said when asked about how the team gets the conditioning needed to maintain that intensity.

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Up next

Marshall returns to Big South Conference play tonight, going on the road to take on Belle Plaine (1-1) at 7:15 p.m.