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East Marshall holds off G-R for third-straight victory

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • East Marshall sophomore Olivia Terrones (42) rises up for a layup over Gladbrook-Reinbeck freshman Belen Ellenberger during the Mustangs’ win over the Rebels in Le Grand on Tuesday night.

LE GRAND — Momentum couldn’t swing to either side quick enough when the East Marshall and Gladbrook-Reinbeck girls basketball teams met up for an NICL West Division battle on Tuesday night.

The Mustangs started the game off well by taking a 15-3 lead after the first quarter, but the Rebels weren’t done yet, outscoring East Marshall 17-5 in the second to even things up at 20-all at halftime.

Ultimately, the Mustangs were able to make a few more plays than G-R down the stretch and walk away with a 44-40 victory at home, their third-straight win over NICL West opponents.

East Marshall head coach Greg Lee said one thing that’s led to his girls winning their last three contests has been their ability to start games well.

“We have been really stressing getting off to a good start and we have done just that the last three or four games,” Lee said. “Then we got a little complacent and their pressure defense, we started throwing the ball away a little bit and let them back into the game. We kind of refocused at halftime and came out like we started and we got a lead and were able to hang on to it.”

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

After halftime, the Mustangs (6-12, 3-8) stormed out to an 11-0 run against the Rebels (6-14, 3-8), forcing G-R to come back again.

Rebels head coach Bruce Bailey said his girls did well for spurts on Tuesday, and they never gave up, but they have to no allow teams to go on such long runs.

“We got down early in the first half but the kids hung in there and battled their way back and got it tied up at halftime,” Bailey said. “We did the same thing coming out in the third quarter, we got down 11 points in two minutes and tried to battle back again and this time we just couldn’t get back there. What we need is more consistency, we’ve got to play good basketball for four quarters.”

Three girls finished in double digits for East Marshall, with Kodie Hoskey and Tylyn Eicher each netting 12 points and Madison Farrington finishing with 10. Mustangs leading scorer Olivia Terrones only scored two in the win, but Lee said the offense has developed enough that Terrones can be more of a facilitator.

“Throughout the year we have been taking too many open jump shots without working our offense, but we have really been working to get in the paint,” he said. “Olivia can do that, and when she does she is getting better and better at finding the person that’s open. I think Hoskey had 12 and Farrington had 10, they got some wide open looks by breaking the press and running to the basket.”

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

Saari Kuehl had 11 points to lead the Rebels, nine of which came off three 3-pointers in the third quarter that helped pull G-R back into the game, while Taylor Gienger finished with 10.

Lee said another factor that has led to this recent three-game winning streak for his girls is the team is finally relatively healthy.

“I don’t want to make any excuses, but we went through a couple of injuries, though not at the same time,” he said. “One would be get back and the other would go out, we had a rash of illness go through and we just didn’t quite find ourselves. I really feel like we are back to how we started the season, our defense has come along ways and we have trouble scoring quite a bit, but we are relying on the defense to hold us in place and we’ve been able to win three or four in a row now.”

East Marshall will try to make it four straight on Thursday when it heads to Meskwaki Settlement to take on the Warriors, starting at 6:15 p.m.

East Marshall 44,

Gladbrook-Reinbeck 40

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

At Le Grand

GLADBROOK-REINBECK (6-14, 3-8) — Saari Kuehl 4 0-0 11, Megan Swanson 2 2-2 7, Taylor Gienger 4 0-0 10, Rachel Conley 1 0-0 2, Belen Ellenberger 3 0-0 2, Madison Denny-Weber 0 0-0 0, Brianna Strohbehn 0 1-2 1, Haleigh Berendes 1 0-0 3. TOTALS 15 3-4 40.

EAST MARSHALL (6-12, 3-8) — Emily Terrones 0 1-4 1, Madison Farrington 5 0-0 10, Tylyn Eicher 5 1-1 12, Olivia Terrones 1 0-3 2, Kodie Hoskey 6 0-0 12, Abigail Beal 0 0-0 0, Maria Rasmusson 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 20 3-9 44.

G-R 3 17 14 6 — 40

E. Marshall 15 5 20 4 — 44

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

3-Point Goals–G-R 7 (Kuehl 3, Gienger 2, Swanson, Berendes), EM 1 (Eicher). Total Fouls–G-R 13, EM 4. Fouled Out–none.

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