Photo by Jake McNeill:

MARSHALL — Reese Drake exploded for 40 points on Saturday to lead the No. 6 Marshall girls basketball team to a come-from-behind win over No. 2 Hill-Murray. The Tigers trailed by 5 points at the break, but prevailed in a game full of offensive fireworks for a 100-85 win.

“It was a great atmosphere,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said of the packed gymnasium for a battle between two of Class 3A’s top teams. “We’ve got some tough games on our schedule, and we talked about the fact that this is one of those games that I think a lot of people had circled on their calendar that, ‘Hey, this is going to be a slugfest.’ It really was, but we were able to make a nice push there at the end and that was really the difference in the game.”

Both teams had players who were on fire from the field in the game. Drake finished the night with 40 points on 12 of 19 shooting from the field, as well as three 3-pointers and 13 made free throws on 14 attempts. Taleigha Bigler added another 26 points on 7 of 18 shooting from the field with four 3-pointers and 8 of 9 shooting from the free-throw line.

“It provides a lot of momentum for our team when the scores went back and forth between both teams … it just makes us play harder,” Drake said.

“And it’s a lot of fun with the energy we had in the gym, it’s a lot of fun to play that type of game,” Bigler said.

In addition to the Marshall backcourt duo’s efforts as scorers, they also each dished out five assists, coming on two turnovers for Drake and five for Bigler. Bigler also grabbed a team-leading 12 total rebounds and three steals, while Drake contributed another eight rebounds.

“It just kind of comes through the flow of the game, me and T [Taleigha] have played together for so many years that we kind of have a feel for where each other is going to be in creating shots for each other,” Drake said.

For the Pioneers, it was the Wilson sisters getting it done. Mya Wilson scored 36 points on 15 of 33 shooting, while Ashlee Wilson scored 33 points on 12 of 24 shooting with seven 3-pointers.

Mya, a junior, has received Division I offers from schools such as No. 7 Louisville, No. 10 Oklahoma, No. 11 Ohio State, No. 12 Texas Christian and No. 13 Michigan State, among others. Ashlee, an eighth grader, has also already received offers from Ohio State, Oklahoma, Iowa and Minnesota, among others.

“I mean, we didn’t do much to slow her down, I think she [Ashlee] had six 3s in the first half,” Westby said with a laugh. “Obviously, they’ve got two major players on their team. Those kids are difficult for anybody to stop, and they were tough for us to stop today, but I thought our kids did a nice job of limiting points for the rest of their kids, which we talked about and felt was really important coming in.”

Coming out of the locker room facing a 5-point deficit, the Tigers started the second half strong. Schneekloth scored the first points after the break with a layup and Bigler snagged a steal to set up Drake for another layup, cutting the deficit to a single point.

Ashlee Wilson answered with a 3 for the Pioneers, but Danielle Nubile knocked down a putback basket and a pair of free throws on the ensuing pair of possessions to tie up the game at 53-all with 15 minutes to play.

As Marshall’s defense continued to ratchet up the pressure on its full-court press, Hill-Murray called a timeout to try to gather its bearings. Still, the Tiger defense came up with a stop out of the huddle and Bigler drained a 3 to give Marshall the lead.

Drake bolstered the lead with a transition layup and, after a Mya Wilson basket, Nubile drew a charge to set up a Bigler 3 and a pair of Drake free throws quickly gave Marshall a 63-55 lead with 12 minutes to play.

The Pioneers hung around for a while longer, but weren’t able to cut the deficit back to one possession. As the half progressed, the fouls started to stack up against Hill-Murray and Marshall took advantage from the charity stripe to pull away. Marshall shot 32 of 39 from the free-throw line while Hill-Murray shot 7 of 8.

Drake knocked down a pair of layups and a free throw to bring Marshall’s lead to double digits for the first time, 85-74, with four minutes to play. As Hill-Murray began to lose players who exceeded the personal foul limit, the excitement grew in the gym as Marshall’s lead became increasingly imminent.

Marshall trailed by as many as 10 points late in the first half before going on a run in the half’s waning minutes. The Tigers trimmed the deficit down to 3 points, though the Pioneers scored one more time before the half to send Hill-Murray into the locker room with a 50-45 edge. The burst of scoring down the stretch was important for Marshall to gain some momentum to carry into the second half, Westby said.

“It was good to go into halftime with the momentum because when we came back out, we scored those two fast baskets right away, so we were able to get back in the game,” Bigler said.

While the Wilson sisters both stand over 6-foot, Marshall still built up a 45-34 edge on the glass, including a 15-7 advantage in offensive rebounds. The Wilsons each grabbed 11 rebounds for Hill-Murray, while Avery Fahl grabbed 10 rebounds for Marshall and Nubile added another nine. Drake’s four offensive boards were also a game-high.

Avery Schneekloth and Nubile contributed 14 and 10 points for Marshall.

Marshall improves to 14-2 on the season with the win and next hosts Willmar (7-8) tonight at 7:15 p.m. The Tigers still have some strong opponents remaining on the docket as they head into the final three weeks of the regular season, with No. 2 Stewartville and Class 4A No. 5 Minnetonka both looming ahead over the next few weeks.

“It’s really fun to play teams like that. It kind of helps us see what we’re made of and just helps us be better and work together as a team,” Bigler said of Saturday’s game.