Photo by Jake McNeill Marshall forward Paige Gillingham (15) drives through a swarm of Worthington defenders during the first half of a prep girls basketball game on Tuesday night at Southwest Minnesota State University’s R/A Facility in Marshall.

MARSHALL — Maddie Panka stepped up to score 10 points and block a pair of shots off the bench for the top-ranked Marshall girls basketball team on Tuesday night as the Tigers pulled away for an 80-27 win over the Worthington Trojans.

Aside from the usual suspects, the Tigers got plenty of production from their bench on Tuesday. Ali Pederson also contributed 9 points for the Tigers and Danielle Nubile added another 4.

“There are some younger kids that we’ve been meaning to get in earlier and we were able to do that tonight. Any minutes that we can get them are a good thing for them and our team, so that was kind of the hope here tonight,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said.

Taleigha Bigler finished as the Tigers’ leading scorer in the game, finishing with 17 points on 6 of 12 shooting with four 3-pointers. Reese Drake also added 14 points on 7 of 12 shooting and dished out six assists with no turnovers.

Paige Gillingham also dished out four turnover-free assists and scored 7 points for the Tigers. She also tied Bigler, Drake, Avery Fahl and Halle DeVos with two of the Tigers’ 17 steals, trailing only Oakley Schneekloth’s three.

Marshall’s defense was pristine throughout the victory, holding Worthington to 9 first-half points. While Westby said he felt the team struggled with shooting the ball early on, the Tigers still found a way to string together baskets and went into the locker room with a 48-9 lead at halftime.

“We shot poorly to start and it took us kind of forever to get back on track. It’s just so important for our team that we can get off to a good start right away and then do some different things defensively,” Westby said. “That’s something we need to get better at, for sure.”

Marshall held a 13-10 rebounding advantage in the game, but Worthington ourebounded Marshall 30-27 overall. Gillingham led the Tigers with three offensive and five total rebounds while Nubile, Drake and Panka each added another three boards.

Marshall improves to a perfect 18-0 with the victory and next takes on Belle Plaine (7-8) on Friday at 7:15 p.m. It will be the Tigers’ first time playing at Belle Plaine.

“[Belle Plaine is] playing a mix of younger and older kids, I know they start an eighth grader and a freshman, but they’ve had a lot of success,” Westby said. “We’ve never played there before, so that’ll be a new thing for us, but we’ve just got to work to get better every day.”