Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall’s Maddie Panka attempts a shot from the paint during the first half of a non-conference girls basketball game against Class 4A’s top-ranked Hopkins on Thursday in Marshall.

MARSHALL — A tightly contested first half wasn’t enough for the No. 3AAA Tigers to upset Class 4A’s top-ranked Hopkins on Thursday night. The Tigers led until the final seconds of the half, but the Royals tied the game up at the buzzer and started the second half hot to pull away and hand Marshall an 80-57 loss.

Hopkins has been a Class 4A powerhouse as of late, reaching the state championship each of the last four seasons and winning it all in 2022 and 2025. As such, Marshall felt like playing this level of competition at this point in the season was something that would benefit the players, Marshall head coach Dan Westby said, adding that the physicality of the game left the girls tired after.

Hopkins and Marshall came out of halftime tied at 37 points apiece, but the Royals quickly picked up steam in the second half. Jaliayh Diggs scored each of the first 6 points of the second half, and Hopkins’ lead only continued to grow from there.

The Royals earned their first double-digit lead of the night when Ava Cupito knocked down a floater four minutes into the frame, making the score 49-39.

Marshall hung around for a while longer, with a Bigler free throw cutting the deficit to 59-50 with 9:30 to play, but Hopkins responded with 11 unanswered points to bring the gap to 20 points with five minutes left.

Turnovers were among the game’s key difference-makers, Westby noted, with the Tigers committing 26 turnovers to Hopkins’ 17. Hopkins’ ability to clog the passing lanes allowed them to frequently turn that defense into offense, with Diggs coming away with six of the Royals’ 16 steals compared to Marshall’s team total of four steals.

“I think they wore us down, mentally and physically,” Westby said. “When that happened, our energy went down. We battled hard for the first 30 minutes, and then we just let their pressure get to us.”

Marshall handled Hopkins’ pressure better in the first half than the second, Westby said, adding that he felt the Tigers made too many careless passes in the second half and that Hopkins is too deep and talented of a team to survive those kinds of mistakes against.

The Tigers fell into a lull midway through the first half after building up a 14-6 lead. Hopkins responded with 13 unanswered points to take the lead, however, with Cupito and Lanaia Durant hitting back-to-back 3s to spark the run after the Royals went over five minutes without a point and seven minutes without a 3.

Diggs knocked down a 3 to cap off the run when Marshall regained its footing. Avery Schneekloth got Marshall back on the scoreboard with a transition layup, though Cupito responded with a second-chance bucket for Hopkins. Still, Avery Fahl got the points back on the next trip down the floor and scored off an assist from Drake after a Hopkins travel to cut the deficit to a point, 21-20.

Drake led Marshall in scoring on the night, scoring 22 points to tie Cupito for a game-high. Drake did most of her damage from the free-throw line, where she shot 17 of 19 while going 2 of 8 from the field. Cupito, meanwhile, didn’t attempt a free throw but knocked down nine of her 22 shot attempts and four of her 13 attempts from long range.

Diggs and Durant also scored 19 and 17 points, respectively for Hopkins, coming on 9 of 14 shooting for Diggs, while Fahl and Schneekloth chipped in 13 and 12 points for the Tigers. No other Marshall players finished with more than 4 points, and Marshall shot 43% from the field and 13% from 3 compared to Hopkins’ 47% and 30% clips.

The two teams continued to trade baskets, but facing a 4-point deficit, Danielle Nubile came up with a defensive stop in the post and Reese Drake finished a layup through a blocking foul and knocked down the and-1 free throw to give Marshall a 31-30 lead with 2:34 remaining in the half.

Following a Fahl layup, Walker knocked down a 3 to tie the game back up, the Royals’ press forced a Marshall 10-second violation and Walker absorbed contact for a go-ahead layup.

Drake knocked down a pair of free throws to re-tie the game with a minute left in the half and then threaded the needle for an assist to Sydney town to give Marshall the lead with 15 seconds to play in the half, but Marianna Davis beat the buzzer to knock down a layup and tie the game at 37 points apiece going into halftime.

Hopkins finished the night with a 38-25 edge on the glass, including 12 offensive rebounds to Marshall’s five. Nubile led the Tigers on the glass with eight rebounds, followed by four apiece from Drake and Fahl.

For the Royals, Walker grabbed nine total rebounds, including three on the offensive glass, while Inarah Nesbith and Ava Smith finished with four offensive rebounds each, resulting in seven total boards for Nesbith.

Cupito knocked down a 3-pointer after a pair of Drake free throws to give Hopkins a 3-2 lead in the game’s opening minutes, but Fahl answered with a 3 of her own on the opposite end and Schneekloth came up with a steal and a layup to give Marshall a 7-3 advantage.

Bigler got into early foul trouble, picking up a pair of personal fouls in the game’s first five minutes before being sent to the bench. Still, Marshall overcame the absence of one of its starting guards with its defensive grit, with Drake grabbing her own offensive rebound off a missed 3 and dishing it to Fahl for a 9-4 Marshall lead through the game’s first 3 minutes.

Drake dished out a team-high six assists on the night while turning the ball over 12 times, and Schneekloth added another three rebounds with three turnovers.

Marshall falls to 3-1 on the season and returns to action tonight when it heads to Montgomery to take on Tri-City United in Big South Conference play at 7:30 p.m.

The Tigers’ schedule will continue to present challenges from there, with a matchup against a Delano team that received votes in the Class 3A poll looming a week later, a matchup against No. 4AA Duluth Marshall coming at the end of the month and other games against No. 4AAA Hill-Murray and No. 6AAA Stewartville set for January.

“I think this team has proven that they should be able to play a difficult schedule, and we certainly have beefed it up, but the thing about playing good teams is it’s only good for you if you handle it the right way,” Westby said. “If you don’t handle it the right way, I’m not sure how valuable it is. But if you turn things around, hopefully this will help our kids understand the importance of our pressure that we generally use on teams. But this was a good test for us, no question about it, especially this early in the year.”