Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall’s Avery Schneekloth (left) and Taleigha Bigler (right) scramble for a loose ball with a New Ulm player during the first half of a prep girls basketball game on Jan. 16 in Marshall. The Tigers and Eagles will meet for the third time this season tonight when they face off at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter tonight in the Section 2AAA championship game.

ST. PETER — For the seventh year in a row, the Marshall girls basketball team is headed back to the Section 2AAA championship game. While the top-seeded Tigers have pulled out the win in three of their last six appearances, they’ll look to move up to a winning record in the final over the stretch as they get ready to take on New Ulm tonight.

While Marshall is just two seasons removed from their last state tournament appearance in 2023, this year’s roster is vastly different. After being senior-heavy then and in 2024, Bigler and Drake were the only Tigers to get significant playing time in The Big Dance last time around.

“I think [reaching the state tournament] would mean a great deal, especially due to the fact that we’ve only got two seniors on this team,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said, referring to Gillingham and Ali Pederson. “I think it would help this group a lot, not only now but down the road.”

New Ulm earned its way to the championship with a 15-point comeback win over St. Peter in the semifinals on Saturday. Despite the grit shown in that 65-64 comeback win over the Saints, Eagles head coach Julie Rogers knows her Eagles need to keep any deficit they face manageable and said how she uses her timeouts may play a factor Wednesday.

“I think we need to maybe mix it up a little bit,” Rogers said. “I maybe need to take a timeout if it would happen again where we would say, ‘OK, what do we need to change to stay close and hang with them? Do I have the right people in the game?’ I didn’t sub a lot in the second half [Saturday] or especially in the last eight minutes or so. Maybe we need to give somebody a break, maybe we need to rest a little bit so they can come back and provide us what we need to get back at it.”

Marshall earned a first-round bye as the top seed in the section but didn’t lose a step during its time off. The Tigers jumped out to a 57-21 lead over fourth-seeded Mankato West and coasted to an 89-39 win from there, with Taleigha Bigler’s 25 points leading a group of five Tigers in double figures. Bigler also grabbed a game-high eight rebounds and her six assists were shy of only Reese Drake’s nine.

“We played a very good game on Saturday and we shot really well. Anytime you do that, you’re going to look good, regardless of who you’re playing,” Westby said. “I think this group has done such a good job all year long of just getting themselves ready to go, and I don’t look for that to change in the section final. These kids are focused and dialed in, and I think they’re excited about the opportunity.”

Wednesday’s section finals game tips off at 7 p.m. at Gustavus Adolphus College’s Gus Young Court.

The Eagles are outscoring the Tigers this season 75.5 points per game to 73.9 ppg, but the Tigers have allowed just 44.5 ppg on average to New Ulm’s 60.8 ppg allowed.

Heading into the game, New Ulm is a strong 21-7 while Marshall has been a juggernaut at 26-1. The Tigers’ lone loss came by one possession, 59-56, to No. 3 Orono on Feb. 1 in Delano. Westby attributed the team’s consistency to its ability to get significant production out of a lot of kids, but they aren’t looking ahead to the state tournament yet.

“We’ve played in some tough games and our kids have always found a way to get it done, with the exception of our loss versus Orono,” Westby said. “Our kids have looked at every game and aren’t taking anybody for granted. I think that’s what made this group so fun to coach is that they’ve been ready to go every night.”

Rogers expects to see Marshall’s tough man defense again Wednesday.

The Eagles dropped a pair of games to Marshall in the regular season, one being an 83-79 loss at home on Dec. 3, 2024. The Eagles’ other loss came in Marshall on Jan. 16, an 80-53 loss that saw the Eagles playing without starting junior guard Brooklyn Lewis.

“I think the first time we played them we actually made more shots than they did, but they beat us at the free-throw line,” Rogers said. “The second time they got 15 more shots up than us … I think Leah [Brustad] might have played just a little bit because her knee was still pretty sore and Brooklyn didn’t play at all, so we need to get more shots up. … We need to match them possession for possession.”

Westby noted that the Tigers’ first game against New Ulm was a long time ago with Bigler fouling out in the tightly contested Marshall loss, so today’s matchup remains a whole new game. Westby added that he felt whichever team executes best will come away with the victory.

The Tigers are a junior-led squad with multiple scoring options in the form of Drake’s 19 points per game on 53% shooting from the field, Bigler’s 16.7 on 47% shooting, and Paige Gillingham and Avery Schneekloth averaging 10.1 and 10.0 points respectively.

As a team, Marshall has shot 46% from the field and 28% from 3-point range on 15.6 attempts per game. Its efficiency can in part be attributed to its wide array of scorers and the backcourt duo of Drake and Bigler distributing the ball effectively with 4.6 assists per game from the former and another 3.9 from the latter.

“We’ve got to play them differently defensively,” Rogers said. “When we played St. Peter, we could key on a couple different kids. With Marshall, we’re going to need to make sure we’re playing what we call ‘team defense.’ So that we’re constantly helping each other defensively, so that if somebody drives in, everybody else rotates and covers up for their teammate that got beat so we help and make them — rather than getting that easy inside shot, we make them have to kick it out and take that outside shot.”

However, the Eagles have a wide arrangement of scoring options also. Lewis, who had the game-winning layup against St. Peter on Saturday, leads the team this year with 16.2 ppg, 4.1 rebounds per game and 3.5 assists per game. She also leads the team in steals with 3.2 per game.

Senior Maddie Backer, who passed 1,000 points for her career on Saturday, is averaging 14.3 ppg this season, while senior Morgan Hulke is averaging 11.3 ppg and 4.1 rpg. Senior Ramsey Hopp adds 8.6 ppg and 4.1 rpg, while Betsy Joyce averages 7.4 ppg and team-high 5.1 rpg. Maggie Joyce (6.7 ppg) and Leah Brustad (6.2 ppg, 4.2 rpg) shore up the Eagles.

“I haven’t gone and tracked it, but I know we’ve had games where Ramsey was our leading scorer, we’ve had games where Morgan was our leading scorer,” Rogers said. “Maddie had 30 a couple times and then we’ve had games where both Joyce girls were in double figures. With us being that deep and that many kids that can score, if somebody’s hot, Maddie was hot at the end of the game against St. Peter, if somebody’s hot, that’s the girl that needs to get the ball in their hands. But everybody’s got to be a threat, everybody’s got to think, ‘When I get the ball, if I can score I’ve got to do it.'”

This isn’t an unfamiliar position by any means for the Marshall Tigers. Marshall has been in the section finals each of the last seven seasons now, winning it in three of those appearances. Most recently, Marshall has matched up with St. Peter each of the last two seasons in the big game but has not seen New Ulm over the stretch.

“We’re fortunate in the fact that we do have a number of kids that have played in this game, and I think that’s good for us, but New Ulm’s got a lot of experience as well,” Westby said, noting that the Eagles are loaded with savvy veterans. “They’re going to use that to their advantage, so it’ll be a tough game.”