Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall guard Alex Franson goes up for a slam dunk during the second half of a prep boys basketball game against Tri-City United in Marshall High School on Friday night. Franson earned his 1,000th career point as the Tigers picked up a senior-night win over the Titans.

MARSHALL — Friday night was senior night for the Marshall boys basketball team when it hosted Tri-City United, but it meant more than that for Alex Franson. The senior point guard finished as Marshall’s leading scorer and earned his 1,000th career point to drive the Tigers to a 94-33 victory.

“It’s always been a personal goal, and it’s great to feel it, but the season’s not done,” Franson said. “We’ve still got work to do.”

With 11 minutes left in the second half, Franson went to the free-throw line after getting fouled while driving along the baseline. He missed the first of his two attempts from the charity stripe but hit the second, scoring his 1,000th career point and making the score 75-26 in favor of the Tigers.

“To be honest, it was [on my mind when I went to the free-throw line] a little bit, but that’s not as important as our team,” Franson said of the milestone. “Team is everything. Without the coaches, family, friends, the community, teammates, that wouldn’t have happened. They were a huge part of it.”

Tri-City United entered the game still in search of its first win of the season, but Marshall showed no signs of falling asleep at the wheel against a struggling opponent. The Tigers opened up a double-digit lead early in the first half and never looked back.

Braxton Koster kept Marshall’s offense going early in the first half. In addition to scoring the game’s opening basket, which TCU answered, he grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds to set up a pair of Franson free throws and a Jack Meier floater. 

Marshall’s 14 offensive rebounds tied TCU’s total rebounds, and Marshall tallied 36 rebounds on the night as a whole. Franson, Meier and Oliver Voigt each grabbed three offensive boards. Voigt’s six total rebounds were also a team-high, just ahead of Koster and Meier’s five.

Franson also came away with a steal to set up a Josh Leibfried layup in between the buckets and Meier grabbed an offensive rebound to set up a Franson layup through contact.

While Franson wasn’t able to knock down the and-1 free throw, Voigt grabbed another offensive rebound before kicking it out to Lefvi Maeyaert for 3 and Cooper Mensink added another 3 on his next trip down the court to bring Marshall’s lead up to 16-7.

Franson finished the night with 19 points on 8 of 16 shooting while Meier added another 11 and Koster, Mensink and Davion Xayarath each added another 10. As a whole, 14 Tigers found the bottom of the net in the game.

TCU called its first timeout trailing 16-9 five minutes in but the Tigers just kept coming, in large part due to the Tigers’ ability to move the ball selfishly. Franson, Koster and Mason Graven in particular had a knack for finding their teammates with no-look passes.

“I think the energy tonight really helped, so we were pretty pumped up for tonight,” Franson said of the team’s flashy passing.

Franson dished out a team-high three assists while the team as a whole turned the ball over just three times in the win. On the defensive end, they forced 16 TCU turnovers, led by five steals from Franson and four from Leibfried. 

Franson elevated above the defense to knock down a close-range baseline floater with eight minutes left, prompting TCU to call its second timeout of the half facing a 28-12 deficit. 

Marshall shot a 62.3% effective field goal percentage in the game while limiting TCU to 32.9%

Again, Marshall stayed hot through the timeout and expanded their lead up past the 20-point margin to 37-16, followed by another 9-0 run to get past the 30-point margin. One last steal and layup from Mensink and a layup from Franson just ahead of the buzzer brought Marshall’s lead to 51-17 at halftime, led by 17 points from Franson. 

The Tigers started the second half on a 12-3 run, punctuated by a fastbreak dunk from Franson when TCU called a timeout three minutes in. Marshall’s lead eventually ballooned to more than 50 points as they slowly continued to pull away with its depth players in the game. 

Marshall improves to 17-7 with the win. The Tigers will head out across Minnesota’s western border to take on Sioux Falls Christian (S.D.) (14-1) on Saturday, Feb. 22  at 6:30 p.m. The Chargers, unanimous No. 1 in South Dakota Class A, were undefeated before dropping their first game of the season to Western Christian on Thursday in a narrow 89-86 battle.