Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall guard Cooper Mensink (5) knocks down a layup in traffic during the first half of a prep boys basketball game against Class AA No. 10 Belle Plaine on Friday night at Marshall High School.

MARSHALL — It was a battle of top-10 Tigers on Friday night when the Class AAA No. 10 Marshall boys basketball team hosted the Class AA No. 10 Belle Plaine Tigers. While the visitors fought valiantly to start the second half, Marshall jumped out to an early lead and held on from there for a 89-60 win.

Alex Franson and Cooper Mensink were hot beyond the arc from the opening tip. Franson hit a pair of 3-pointers to give Marshall each of the game’s first points. After Jayden Meister answered Belle Plaine’s first points with a layup off a Franson assist, Mensink knocked down a 3-pointer to make the score 11-4.

The Marshall backcourt duo combined for 26 first-half points, 16 from Mensink and 10 from Franson, to tie Belle Plaine’s team total at the break. Marshall went into the locker room with a 42-26 lead.

Belle Plaine called its first timeout of the night after Mensink hit a 3-pointer and a layup off a bounce pass from Braxton Koster, and Franson scooped and scored off a tipped pass to make the score 15-5 in favor of Marshall.

From there, Marshall only continued to heat up. Mensink knocked down a contested layup and a tough catch-and-shoot 3 to extend Marshall’s lead to 27-9.

A trio of trifectas gave Marshall its largest lead of the half, 36-13. Meister hit the first after Belle Plaine called its second timeout and Mensink hit the other pair. The first of Mensink’s 3s came at the shot clock buzzer after Franson drove and kicked to Mensink after recovering an offensive board.

Belle Plaine answered Marshall’s surge with an 8-0 run but Marshall still went into the locker room with a 16-point lead.

A pair of 3s from Mensink and Graven, and a Graven layup on a fastbreak bounce pass from JR Vierstraete started the hometown Tigers off with an 8-0 run. Yet, Belle Plaine wasn’t ready to give up yet, catching fire with a 14-4 run by capitalizing on some Marshall miscues.

The run brought Marshall’s lead back down to 14 points and Belle Plaine eventually trimmed it to 12, 64-52, with nine minutes remaining.

Yet, the visiting Tigers never got back within single digits. Marshall answered with a 21-6 run to bring their lead up to 85-58. The cushion eventually expanded to as many as 29 points as the Tigers rested their starters for the game’s final minutes.

The Marshall boys basketball team extends its winning streak to eight games with the win, bringing them to 14-3 on the season.

The Tigers will next travel to South Dakota to take on S.D. No. 2 Brandon Valley (8-1) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. with the hope of ending the Lynx’s seven-game win streak. From there, Marshall will have a road rematch against Class AA No. 3 Waseca (17-0) on Friday. The undefeated Bluejays handed Marshall its last lost before the current win streak, topping the Tigers 71-52 in Marshall on Jan. 4.