Photo by Jake McNeill Marshall guard Davion Xayarath (31) shoots a jump shot over a Fairmont defender during the second half of a prep boys basketball game in Marshall on Saturday.

MARSHALL — Some hot shooting from Cooper Mensink and quality team defense helped the No. 10 Marshall boys basketball team take down Fairmont on Saturday for its sixth consecutive victory.

It’s good to see the team pulling away this year. I mean, it’s like six or seven in a row now, so these guys keep on staying hot, staying together as a team and executing out there,” Mensink said.

Mensink finished the night with a game-high 16 points, shooting 4 of 13 from beyond the arc. He was the primary floor spacer for the Tigers on the night, as the rest of the group shot 3 of 15.

To start the game, 6-foot-8 forward Oliver Tordsen scored the first points of the night for Fairmont. Marshall’s JR Vierstraete answered, but a Joseph Hackett 3-pointer and a Nolan Schultze and-1 after going through the 6-foot-6 Jayden Meister gave the Cardinals an 8-2 lead.

Yet, the Tigers started to head up from there. A trio of shots from Franson and a layup through contact from Davion Xayarath brought the Tigers within 2 points. Marshall was assessed a technical for celebrating Xayarath’s tough bucket, but the Cardinals missed both shots.

Mensink gave Marshall its first lead of the day when he lunged for a steal near halfcourt and turned it into a go-ahead 3, making the score 13-12 with eight minutes left in the half.

Joe Long tied the game back up for Fairmont with a free throw, but that was the last time Marshall didn’t lead. Oliver Voigt recovered a Marshall miss for a putback and Josh Leibfried converted a floater off a feed from Franson to give Marshall a two-possession lead. Mensink then hit a deep 3-pointer at the shot clock buzzer to give Marshall a 20-13 lead when Fairmont called a timeout trailing 20-13.

“We started playing our offense,” Mensink said of the shift. “We started listening to what the coaches were trying to draw up for us and just executed our offense and ended up going away like that.”

Voigt finished the night as Marshall’s second-leading scorer with 10 points on 5 of 8 shooting while Levi Maeyaert added another 7 points.

Marshal’s barrage continued out of the break when Maeyaert came right out and hit a straightaway 3 for the Tigers. Brett Williams ended Fairmont’s five-minute drought with a bucket, but Mensink sunk another to extend Marshall’s lead up to 26-14.

Tordsen gave Fairmont a significant size advantage in the game but, despite Jack Meier’s defensive presence being unavailable for the game, Marshall came together to limit Tordsen’s talents. The Fairmont forward still scored a team-leading 13 points on 5 of 9 shooting, but Marshall prevented him from dominating the paint.

“In the paint all week at practice, we worked on post defense and getting around him and always moving so he can’t pin us,” Vierstraete, one of the defenders tasked with the assignment for Marshall, said. He added that the team also made a conscious effort to switch off to keep players fresh.”

Marshall finished with five blocks as a team, led by two from Voigt and one apiece from Meister, Braxton Koster and Mason Eickhoff. Franson also had five steals on the defensive end while Vierstraete, Xayarath and Mensink each added another pair.

The Tigers’ lead remained at double digits at halftime and Marshall went into the locker room with a 31-21 lead behind 9 points from Mensink.

Schultze opened the second half for Fairmont with an and-1, but a pair of Mensink free throws and an acrobatic layup from Koster brought Marshall’s lead up to 11 points. Schultze finished in double figures with 11 points.

Koster picked up his third foul with 15 minutes left while trying to defend Tordsen and was substituted out in order to keep him available for the final stretch if necessary. Still, the Tigers continued to pull away. Tordsen got a bucket to cut Marshall’s lead to double digits shortly after, but Meister responded with a 3-pointer to give Marshall a 38-26 lead. An and-1 and a 3-pointer from Mensink then brought the Tiger advantage up to 44-28.

“We started playing together. After that, it was kind of just… we shared the ball and played our defense,” Vierstraete said of the Tigers’ surge down the stretch.

Marshall went on to lead by as many as 23 points in the game, holding a 39-36 advantage with four minutes remaining.

Marshall outrebounded Fairmont 29-22 overall and 15-4 on the offensive glass despite the team’s size disadvantage. Voigt led the team with six total rebounds and tied Xayarath and Maeyaert with a team-leading three offensive boards, while Franson added another five total rebounds. Xayarath also dished out a game-high three assists with one turnover.

For the Cardinals, Tortdsen grabbed seven total rebounds and two offensive rebounds.

Marshall improves to 12-3 with the win and will aim to pick up its seventh consecutive victory when it goes on the road to face Worthington (2-12) tonight at 7:15 p.m.

Fairmont falls to 10-5 on the year and will look to bounce back when it hosts Belle Plaine (10-2) tonight at the same time.