Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall forward Avery Schneekloth saves a pass from going out of bounds during the first half of a Big South Conference girls basketball game against Jordan on Tuesday in Marshall.

MARSHALL — The sixth-ranked Marshall girls basketball team led wire-to-wire in its Big South Conference matchup against Jordan on Tuesday. The Tigers jumped out to an early lead and never took their foot off the gas, running away with a 76-34 win.

“There are games on our schedule that we can win, there are games that we should win, and this was one of those games that we felt like we needed to play well,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said. “If we did that, we could win … We’ve been able to score a lot of points, and that always helps. I mean, we had 42 at halftime, that’s a pretty good offensive output, but I think it’s been a lot of fun and a good stretch for us.”

Avery Schneekloth was at the core of the Tigers’ early offensive success, scoring 17 first-half points to help the Tigers head into halftime with a 42-22 lead. She finished the night with a total of 21 points on 8 of 12 shooting, followed by 15 from Bigler and 12 from Drake. All of Drake’s points came in the first half before the game got out of hand.

Westby cited Schneekloth’s ability to get to the basket as a key piece of her offensive performance, adding that he feels like she gains confidence when she gets in close and the rest of her game comes from there.

The Tigers finished the game with 14 steals, led by three each from Schneekloth and Bigler. As a whole, Marshall forced 22 turnovers while coughing the ball up themselves five times, in part due to their ability to push the pace and force miscues from the Jaguars.

“I thought we did a really good job of pushing the pace. We were able to get some good looks at the basket just by keeping our heads up and looking for people cutting to the hoop down the court.

Danielle Nubile scored the first points of the second half, but the Marshall offense went cold from there. The Tigers went over six minutes after Nubile’s initial basket without scoring again.

Marshall heated up like a microwave to end the drought with 11 minutes left. Nubile got her second layup of the half to get back on the board, and Schneekloth and Taleigha Bigler each came up with a steal and a layup on the ensuing pair of Jordan inbound attempts to give Marshall 6 points in a span of about 12 seconds, prompting a Jordan timeout trailing 50-28.

The Tigers continued to separate from there, with 3-pointers from Bigler and Fahl helping Marshall’s lead balloon to as many as 42 points as it coasted to victory.

Jordan’s defensive edge in the second half came in part due to its switch to a zone defense, something Westby said his team hasn’t seen too often this year.

“We maybe stood around for a little bit and maybe settled for too many shots from the perimeter, and didn’t really look to get the ball inside,” Westby said. “Once we scored, we were able to get back in our pressure and create some quick baskets and that kind of got us going again.”

Drake dished out six assists with one turnover for Marshall, while Bigler distributed another five. The two each also grabbed five rebounds, tying Schneekloth for second on the team to Avery Fahl’s six.

Nubile was once again a menacing presence inside for the Tigers, accounting for four of the Tigers’ eight blocks.

The Tigers got off to a hot start when Schneekloth grabbed a defensive rebound and sent the ball up the court to Drake, who sent a bounce pass to Nubile for the game’s first points. Fahl then grabbed an offensive board to set up a second-chance 3 from Drake, and Schneekloth answered an Olivia Fynboh 3 with a pair of free throws to give the Tigers a 7-3 lead after the game’s opening minutes.

Marshall claimed its first double-digit lead when Schneekloth got going in transition for a layup, prompting a Jordan timeout trailing 15-5 five minutes into the game. She kept the hot hand after the break, however, spinning off a past defender for an easy layup and helping force a 10-second violation on the press to keep Marshall in command.

Sydney Towne had a big defensive sequence for the Tigers with 10 minutes to play in the first half, blocking a shot out of bounds and coming up with a steal after the Jaguars inbounded the ball to keep the Tigers’ double-digit lead intact.

Up by 29 with 5:19 left to play, Marshall subbed out its starters for the remainder of the game.

Marshall improves to 9-2 on the season with the win, and aims to extend its winning streak to five games when it goes on the road to take on St. Peter (6-3) on Friday at 7:15 p.m.