Photo by Samantha Davis: Marshall's Taleigha Bigler begins to go up for a shot after driving the lane in the first half against Mankato East on Saturday at Marshall High School. Bigler finished with 10 points in the Tigers' 64-35 win.

MARSHALL — Through vocal, aggressive and collective defensive efforts, the No. 3 Marshall girls basketball team flew by Mankato East for a 64-35 win Saturday evening. The Tigers limited the Cougars to just 19 first-half points, and three players finished scoring in double figures, led by Reese Drake’s 19.

Marshall built up a 24-point halftime lead and played in a cohesive full-court press the entire night. The Tigers forced turnovers on nearly every defensive possession. The Tigers’ rebounding effort also was strong, finishing with a 7-3 advantage on the offensive glass.

“We always feel like you got to be able to hang your head on defense,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said. “We did a good job of that. I thought our half-court defense was very good today, and that’s something we are going to need the further we go.”

The Tigers had 12 steals and forced 19 Mankato East turnovers. Along with Drake, who also had a team-high five rebounds, Avery Schneekloth finished with 16 points while Taleigha Bigler followed with 10, all of which came in the first half.

Marshall had a quick turnaround after coming off a 78-46 road win Friday night at Tri-City United. With just one regular-season game left, the Tigers’ lone loss this season came on a visit to Delano in a 59-56 loss to No. 2 Orono.

The two teams traded baskets for the first several minutes of the game until Marshall began to pull away about midway through the first half.

“It felt like both halves took a while to get going,” Westby said. “Took us a while to figure out a few things, but it got a little better. It was just kind of a grind all day today.”

Overall, Marshall shot 45% from the field and went 6 for 18 from the perimeter. It limited the Cougars to a 32% field goal outing, and they went 3 of 17 from beyond the arc.

The Cougars won the opening tip, but Drake immediately stole the ball on defense and fed it to Bigler who drove into the lane and got fouled. She made one of her free throws to get the night’s first points.

“Those two [Drake and Bigler] have just such a good sense for what the other one is going to do and where they’re going to be,” Westby said. “Those two play so well together, and we’re just thankful to have them on our team.”

Avery Fahl sank a 3-pointer off an inbound play with an assist from Drake to put the Tigers up 6-5, while Bigler got the steal off the press and turned it into a fast break layup to spark Marshall’s defense.

“I think our kids do a good job of taking pride in defense,” Westby said. “They understand the importance.”

Mankato East hit a 3 in response to tie the score up at 8, but Bigler hit a 3-pointer right after to give Marshall the edge back.

Drake led with 17 first-half points while Bigler had 10.

Marshall was everywhere on the floor and also was double- or triple-teaming the Cougars anytime they got into the paint.

“Mankato East had a couple kids with some size, and yet our kids felt like we did a good job of doubling down and not giving them any clean looks inside,” Westby said.

Schneekloth stole the ball off the press right off the inbound under the basket for an easy 2 points, followed by a Paige Gillingham jump shot at the block to give the Tigers a 20-12 advantage.

Drake began to heat up offensively to play into Marshall’s run with a few minutes to go in the first half. The junior guard hit three straight field goals, all from the post after driving toward the basket from the wing, to extend to a 30-16 lead.

Drake drilled in a pair of 3-pointers from opposite sides of the perimeter, and Bigler made a pair of free throws to keep the Tigers’ run going.

Danielle Nubile got an offensive rebound and hit the putback to put Marshall up 43-19 heading into halftime.

The Tigers kept on the gas in the second half and never allowed Mankato East to get momentum going.

Schneekloth hit a midrange jumper near the free throw line and Drake found a cutting Gillingham to the basket for Marshall’s first second-half points, forcing the Cougars to call a timeout a minute in.

Still partaking strongly in its defensive efforts, Marshall cruised the rest of the way and continued to set itself up for a strong end to the regular season. Westby put in his reserves to get some playing time as well, and the game went into running clock the final few minutes.

Marshall (24-1) will next wrap up its regular season at home when it hosts Sioux Falls Jefferson, S.D., on Thursday at 7 p.m.

“We’re going to play on Thursday, and then we’re going to have a little bit of time off [before sections],” Westby said. “We will use that as some time to shore some things up and do some more shooting. We can never do enough shooting. Looking forward to that extra practice there.”