Photo by Jake Olson: Marshall’s Avery Schneekloth goes up for the layup during the second half of Tuesday night’s Big South Championship contest against Fairmont. The Tigers took home the hardware after defeating Fairmont 77-50.

FAIRMONT – Fairmont faithful began to rise to their feet. After Brylee Miller found Emelia Klanderud on an in-bound’s cut to the hoop, a once 25-point Marshall advantage had dwindled to 14 with over eight minutes to play in the contest.

With the shot-clock winding down, Tiger guard Taleigha Bigler weaved through the Fairmont zone defense before kicking the ball out to Danielle Nubile on the right wing.

Nothing fazed Nubile in taking the shot, as the junior calmly sank the 3-pointer to kick-start seven consecutive points for the Marshall offense, which pulled away from the Cardinals’ comeback to earn the 77-50 Big South Conference Girls Basketball Championship victory.

“We never gave up, and that’s what you have to do,” Fairmont head coach Sara Junkermeier said. “When you’re at this point in the season, when you earn an extra game and get to play a team like Marshall, you have to be focused and not give up.”

Reese Drake and Avery Schneekloth were two of the four Tiger players to reach double figures, scoring 20 and 19 points, respectively. Bigler’s five made field goals charged her 15-point output, while sharpshooter Avery Fahl notched 11 of her own on three made 3-pointers. Marshall nailed 10 outside shots while assisting on nearly 70% of their made field goals.

Another strong effort from Brylee Miller led the Cardinals’ scorers. Miller finished with a 26-point, 15-rebound double-double while shooting 60% from the field. Gwyneth Schultz had seven points. Olive Kawecki, Bria Williamson and Madilyn Thompson each had five.

Tiger head coach Dan Westby knew that no matter what transpired on the court during Tuesday night’s clash, it was going to be a challenging task for Marshall to pull off the victory. Luckily, his team finished the night executing on both sides of the ball, limiting Fairmont’s speed and transition while using their own fast pace to build a comfortable lead in the opening half.

“Coming to their place, we knew it was going to be difficult,” Westby said. “They’ve had a very successful season, and we knew it was going to be a tough game. We felt like we needed to be ready to go.”

Fairmont drew first blood with the help of Kawecki running the offense. The eighth-grader found Miller deep in the paint for an easy floater. Miller returned the favor to Kawecki the next possession, finding the point guard on the perimeter for a catch-and-shoot 3 that gave the Cardinals a 7-4 cushion.

Westby’s offense finally began to find its rhythm two minutes later. The Tigers began to take advantage of their quick perimeter play, with each guard having a slight speed advantage over the Cardinals’ man-to-man defense.

Bigler connected on her second blow-by drive to the basket before Madilyn Panka’s right side layup fell through the net after a Fairmont foul. Panka’s ensuing free throw gave her team a 14-7 advantage.

Junkermeier and her staff responded with a 2-3 zone defense, playing tighter in the paint to stop more direct drives to the basket.

While this briefly held the Tigers to three consecutive empty possessions, Marshall used precise ball movement to set up open looks on the perimeter or mismatches down low. Nubile found some wiggle-room beneath the zone before back-to-back outside makes from Fahl and Drake ballooned the score to 24-16.

Marshall finished the half on a 21-6 scoring run, including 3-pointers from Schneekloth and Bigler to end the opening segment with a 45-25 grasp over Fairmont.

Junkermeier’s team never gave up, however. She credited Fairmont’s second-half offense to better movement off the ball, leading to more floor spacing and more pristine opportunities at every level of the half-court.

Schultz started things off with an and-one layup down low with 13:54 on the clock. Two minutes later, Kawecki took advantage of a missed defensive rotation with a swift drive and score that cut the deficit to under 20 points. Thompson and Williamson drilled 3-pointers on the following two possessions to fall down 57-41.

“We just moved a little bit better in the second half,” Junkermeier said. “I felt in the first half we stood still a lot, which doesn’t make their defense do anything. When we started moving, they had to think a bit more about what we were doing.”

Following the Nubile outside shot that temporarily stopped the Fairmont scoring surge, Marshall converted on consecutive turnovers the following two possessions, with Drake and Nubile finishing at the rim to push their team’s lead back over 20 points.

“That was big,” Westby said regarding his team’s 7-point scoring run. “They had hit back-to-back 3-pointers and their crowd was getting into it. We came down and hit a 3 of our own to settle things down a little bit. They certainly didn’t go away.”