Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall forward Avery Schneekloth (24) positions herself in the post before shooting a fadeaway during the second half of a prep girls basketball game against Alexandria Area on Friday night in Marshall. The Tigers defeated the Cardinals 75-70 to pick up a win in their season debut.

MARSHALL — Despite facing a significant halftime deficit, a largely inexperienced Marshall girls basketball team showed some grit and toughness when it hosted Alexandria for its season-opener on Friday night. The Tigers stormed back late in the second half and took down the Cardinals 75-70.

“Throughout the second half, there were a couple of times we were down 8 or 9 and came charging back, came within two points or tied it up, and boy our kids just never quit,” Westby said. “I’m just really proud of our effort tonight.”

Facing a 9-point deficit at halftime, Marshall showed no signs of giving up after the break. Avery Schneekloth hit a 3-pointer for her second basket of the game and Reese Drake hit a layup and a free throw to start the half strong. On the team’s fourth trip down the floor, another 3 from Ali Pederson tied the game up at 39-39, but Alexandria responded with a pair of free throws to get right back on top.

Alexandria extended its lead to 9 points from there, but some sharpshooting from beyond the arc from Paige Gillingham and Avery Fahl once again got Marshall within striking distance, 57-53. After an Alexandria bucket, Drake hit a 3-pointer in a defender’s face to just beat the shot clock and make it a one-possession game with eight minutes to play.

After taking on limited scoring opportunities in the first half, which she finished with 2 points, Schneekloth had a heavy hand in the offense during crunch time in her first varsity start. She hit an open layup and a short-range jumper to narrow the deficit to 2 points with five minutes remaining and, after an Alexandria basket, Schneekloth knocked down a pair of free throws to keep Marshall within striking distance.

Westby said two of the things he was concerned about going into the game were Alexandria’s offensive rebounding and their ability to leak players out to set up fast breaks. While neither Fahl nor Schneekloth got consistent minutes in last year’s roster, the Tigers’ frontcourt players held their own to help Marshall outrebound the Cardinals 27-20, including a 10-7 advantage on the offensive glass. 

“You never know how those kids are going to react in that situation, but I thought both Avery Fahl and Avery Schneekloth really came out and… if they didn’t get the rebound, they did a good job of keeping the ball alive,” Westby said. “That was a lot of fun to see that kind of effort from them, again, not having a lot of varsity experience either.”

Schneekloth finished with a team-high six total rebounds and tied Bigler with a team-leading two offensive boards. Fahl tied Drake as the team’s second-leading rebounder with five total boards.

A missed opportunity at the free throw line left Marshall a point shy of tying the game, especially painful when the Tigers got the offensive rebound and forced a tie-up. Still, they didn’t hang their heads after the opportunity. The team’s defense went down and got a stop and Schneekloth got a rebound and knocked down the second-chance points for Marshall’s first lead of the game with under two minutes to play.  

While Bigler and Drake had their shots falling early on, the rest of the team struggled. The rest of the roster combined for 5 first-half points and the Tigers went into the locker room trailing 39-30 as a result. 

Schneekloth hit an open layup and a short-range jumper to narrow the deficit to 2 points with five minutes remaining, the smallest gap of the second half. The Cardinals responded with another bucket, but a pair of free throws from Schneekloth brought Marshall within striking distance. Drake went 1 of 2 at the line with the opportunity to tie it. The Tigers got an offensive board on her miss and forced a tie-up on the same possession, but the possession arrow went to the Cardinals.

Marshall got a defensive stop and Avery Schneekooth got a second-chance bucket to give Marshall its first lead with under two minutes to play. She finished the day with 13 points, 11 of which came in the second half, on 5 of 9 shooting. 

“We felt a little nervous, but then also a little hyped because of the volleyball game,” Schneekloth said, citing the Marshall volleyball team’s loss to Alexandria in the state championship match as a motivating factor. While she said she had some anxiety during the game, Schneekloth said that her desire to do what she could to help her team win prepared her for the situation. 

Fahl kept the momentum with a corner 3 to get Marshall a two-possession lead. Alexandria responded with a layup, but a layup from Taleigha Bigler hung on the rim for nearly four seconds before falling in for the dagger.

Alexandria had one last chance to make things competitive but missed both of its free throw shots. Drake took a hard foul after grabbing the rebound but stuck it out in the game to knock down the two free throws for a 6-point lead with 13.9 seconds remaining, effectively sealing the win.

“It was physical. We kind of anticipated some of that going in, but I’m not sure we were ready for that much,” Westby said. “They’re a great team. They’re going to rebound, they’re going to have a say in who wins our class at some point, but that was a good start for us.”

Alexandria only had six players score in the game but four of them reached double figures. Hadley Thul led the team with 18 points followed by 16 from Chloe Scholl, 14 from Allie Haabala and 11 for McKinley Hoelscher. Scholl’s seven rebounds were also a game-high.

While the Tigers got the rest of the team involved in the second half, the team’s first-half offense all came from Bigler and Drake. Bigler carried the bulk of the load with 17 points before the break while Drake added another 8. 

The rest of the team combined for 5 points as Marshall went into the locker room trailing 39-30. Bigler finished the night with a game-high 23 points on 6 of 12 from the field and 4 of 8 from 3-point range, while Drake added another 21 on 6 of 11 shooting.

“When we were struggling offensively, I thought [Bigler] was able to find her shot and knock some shots down when we really needed them,” Westby said. “[After the break,] we had a number of kids, Paige Gillingham stepped in and made a couple big 3s, Avery Schneekloth hit a big 3 to start the second half, so everybody contributed. It was a great first game for us.”

Drake finished with five assists for Marshall while Bigler added another three. On the defensive end, the two were also the team’s leaders with three steals for Bigler and two for Drake, helping Marshall to a 6-12 advantage in the turnover battle. Schneekloth also had a block in the game.

Marshall, now 1-0 on the season, will look to build on Friday’s strong victory at the start of next week, when it goes on the road to face Willmar on Monday at 7:15 p.m. The Cardinals are 0-1 on the season after losing their season-opener to Pequot Lakes by a score of 51-42 on Friday.