Photo by Jake McNeill: The Marshall bench cheers as guard Taleigha Bigler (foreground) is helped to her feet after drawing a foul on a layup attempt during the Class AAA girls basketball semifinals against Benilde-St. Margaret's, Thursday at Williams Arena in Minneapolis. The Tigers will take on Cretin-Derham Hall in the Class AAA third-place game at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul today.

MARSHALL — Despite falling out of contention for a state title, the Marshall girls basketball team still has plenty left to play for at the Class AAA state tournament. The third-seeded Tigers fell to No. 2 Benilde-St. Margaret’s in Thursday’s semifinals, and now Marshall will take on No. 4 Cretin-Derham Hall in a battle for a third-place trophy.

Today’s third-place game will be played at Concordia-St. Paul’s Gangehloff Center in St. Paul at noon.

The Tigers fell 71-59 to BSM despite an elite two-way performance from Taleigha Bigler. The senior guard scored a game-high 21 points on 6 of 14 shooting from the field and 2 of 4 shooting from 3-point range. The rest of the team shot 2 of 12 from beyond the arc.

On the defensive end, Bigler accounted for eight of the Tigers’ 14 steals, and dished out five assists. Reese Drake also contributed 21 points on 8 of 15 shooting while Danielle Nubile led the Tigers on the glass with nine rebounds.

Cretin-Derham Hall fell to the third-place game with a 65-51 loss to top-seeded Stewartville. The Raiders trailed by just 4 points at the half but were outscored by 10 in the second.

Madeleine Hamiel put together a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double in the loss, Joey Hover logged 14 points with a pair of blocks and Leila Colvin added another 10 points.

Hamiel has been the Raiders’ leading scorer thus far with 14.9 points per game this season, followed by another 10 from Sage Gilbert and another four players with 5 or more points. Hemiel, a freshman, and Gilbert, a senior, were named to the Class AAA All-State honorable mention team by the Minnesota Girls Basketball Coaches Association.

Today’s matchup marks the second consecutive season in which the Tigers and Cretin-Derham Hall matched up in the state tournament. Marshall defeated the Raiders 57-48 in last year’s semifinals, pulling away after a 26-26 tie at halftime.

Bigler led the Tigers in last year’s win with 30 points, 11 rebounds and four steals while Reese Drake added another 17 points with five assists and six steals. Defensively, Marshall forced 22 turnovers to generate a 21-12 edge in points off turnovers. The Tigers limited the Raiders to just one scorer in double figures, Hamiel with 11 points and 15 rebounds.

Over the first two games of this year’s state tournament, Drake has been Marshall’s leading scorer with 18.5 points per game followed by Bigler’s 15. Bigler has also racked up 19 total rebounds, followed by 16 from Nubile.

Tickets for today’s third-place game are available on mshsl.org/tickets. Adult tickets cost $14 and students cost $10, including tax. The third-place and consolation games will be streamed on NSPN.TV, available for a $12 monthly subscription fee or a $33 annual fee.