DAILY GLOBE
MARSHALL - Facing what they knew was an uphill battle, the Worthington Trojans girls basketball team were unable to climb the mountain Wednesday night in the first round of the Section 2AAA tournament.
The Marshall Tigers, seeded No. 1 in the tournament field, dispatched eighth-seeded Worthington 65-34 at Marshall High School.
The game was close early. The Tigers led just 9-8 at one point, but moved to a 36-14 lead at halftime and added to their lead in the second half.
In the regular season, Marshall defeated Worthington twice before, by scores of 64-28 and 59-25. The Tigers’ win on Wednesday moved them to 21-6 on the 2015-16 season and sent them into a Section 2AAA semifinal round test Saturday at 6 p.m. against New Ulm at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.
New Ulm defeated Mankato West 56-47 Wednesday night.
Worthington ends the season with a winning record - which isn’t bad, considering that the Trojans lost the bulk of their offense to graduation.
“We were 14 and 11 this year. At the beginning of the season we thought .500 may be where we were at,” said head coach Eric Lindner. “We’ve lost to good teams. And we were playing good basketball toward the end.”
On Wednesday, it didn’t help that three of the team’s top players - Allie Bruns, Emma Gerber and Abigail Mulder - were unable to play for various reasons.
Evelyn Othow, a freshman center, was credited by Lindner for playing an excellent game. She scored eight points for the Trojans and grabbed 10 rebounds. Ahmitara Alwal also had eight points for the visitors.
But Marshall’s experience showed in the first half as the Tigers separated themselves after the closely-fought opening minutes. Worthington had 16 turnovers in the first half compared to Marshall’s three, and the Trojans made just five of 19 field goals.
“We were doing exactly what we were supposed to do (early in the game), which was to play slow and not get flustered. And they lost track of what they were doing and played fast,” Lindner said.
Senior forward Marah Mulso led Marshall with 24 points. Lexi Saugstad scored 15, all on 3-point attempts.
Worthington 14 34
Marshall 36 65
WORTHINGTON (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) - Meyer 0-1-0-2, Othow 0-4-0-8, Alwal 0-3-2-8, Thuringer 0-0-1-1, Woll 0-1-0-2, Heidebrink 0-0-2-2, Weg 0-2-2-6, Shaffer 1-0-0-3, Kill 0-0-2-2, Rosenberg 0-0-0-0. Totals 1-10-9-34.
MARSHALL (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) - Sanow 0-1-1-3, Mulso 0-9-6-24, Buysse 1-0-0-3, Louwagie 1-2-2-9, Marks 2-1-0-7, Petrich 0-1-2-4, Saugstad 5-0-0-15. Totals 9-13-12-65.
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