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First, the good news. Marshalltown Community College's women's basketball team played the top-rated team in the nation to a second-half stalemate Saturday.

"Once we decided we could play with them," said Tigers head coach Larry Roberts, "we did alright."

On the flip side, Kirkwood scored the game's first 11 points and led 30-10 at halftime. But the real kicker was this - 1-for-29.

That's what No. 13 MCC shot from the field in the first half of a 63-43 setback to the Eagles, its first loss in 14 games at the new Student Activity Center, and second in as many games.

"I thought both teams defended really well for about the first 10 minutes and then it started getting away from us a little bit just because we still couldn't make any shots," said Roberts.

Two-time defending national champion Kirkwood (29-1, 18-0) didn't score until the 16-minute mark of what was the final regular-season ICCAC Division II game for both teams. With 13:40 left, however, the Eagles led 11-0 after a conventional three-point play by Andi Waugaman.

The Eagles never let the lead dwindle below seven after that. They continued to make life tough for Marshalltown (23-7, 13-5) with a relentless fullcourt man-to-man defense, and the Tigers didn't help themselves either, barely hitting double digits by halftime via eight free throws and an Autumn Davis coast-to-coast drive.

"They're easily the best defensive team we've seen," said Roberts. "These girls are big, they're strong, they're well-coached. They just really get after it. If you get a screen or you get a cut and you're open for a second against these guys, someone else is there.

"We've got to adjust to that if we're fortunate to play them again."

Marshalltown shot 23 percent for the game, including 4-for-26 (15 percent) from behind the arc.

The 43 points the Tigers mustered was 32 below their season average, but just two fewer than they scored in a December loss to the Eagles.

Roberts said the Tigers abandoned their regular offense in the first half, and failed to adjust to the Eagles' overall speed at both ends.

"We get the shot clock down to 10, and we take a 3-point shot 5 feet behind the 3-point line with 8 seconds left on the shot clock. We rushed some of those things," he said. "We didn't play our game for probably 25 minutes today. We played it for 15, and played pretty darn well."

El Sara Greer scored 10 points and was the only player in double figures for Kirkwood, which has eight players averaging between 6 and 11 points per outing.

Kwinnyata Mercer had 13 points and 12 rebounds, and Davis added 12 points for the Tigers.

"I think we realized we can defend them if we work at it; we can make some shots if we work at it," Roberts concluded. "You've got to make a chink in their armor; we've got to make a break. In the second half, we took the ball to the basket strong instead of trying to avoid every bit of contact.

"Megan Stanton did a good job for a long stretch there on their point guard (McKensey Long)."

The Tigers will be the third seed at the Region XI tournament at Iowa Lakes in Estherville starting this week.

Roberts said he expects MCC will play Southwestern at 3 p.m. Thursday, but pairings weren't released by press time Saturday night.

Under normal circumstances, Marshalltown's loss would have meant a three-way tie for second place at 13-5, with DMACC holding the tiebreaker over both MCC and Iowa Central, and MCC owning the third-place tiebreaker over Iowa Central.

But an academic rules infraction by DMACC meant the Bears had to forfeit nine wins. Two of those wins were against Iowa Central, which wound up in second place at 15-3 as a result.

Iowa Lakes finished 13-5 along with MCC but the Tigers held that tiebreaker.