By the end of the first quarter the Bobcat girls trailed 27-7 and that trend continued throughout the game as the Mohawks walked away with a 69-27 victory before heading into the winter break.

Though her girls fell by 42 points, MHS head coach Stacy O’Hare said she was actually encouraged by what she saw.

“We kind of set some goals before this game, things we thought we could reach,” she said. “Scoring 28 points was one of our goals tonight, we fell a little short but we also shouldn’t ever go where we are scoring in the teens or single digits, so that is our focus right now.”

In its five previous games against top-quality opponents, the Bobcats (2-8, 1-3) had failed to score more than 20 points on four occasions, with the only other 20-plus point performance coming in an 83-21 loss to Class 5A No. 6 West Des Moines Valley on Tuesday.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON - Marshalltown senior Alyvia Chadderdon (2) pulls up for a shot on the block over Mason City defender Emma Hollander (22) during the first half of the Bobcats’ 69-27 loss to the Mohawks.

O’Hare said her girls haven’t even attempted enough shots to be competitive in some of those previous games, but that is starting to change.

“We have to be more aggressive on offense which means people need to shoot the ball,” she said. “I thought our kids did a better job of being a little more aggressive and shooting the ball. The focus of our practice on Wednesday was not coming out flat, regardless of who we are playing.”

Marshalltown had nine total field goals in the loss, with Erica Johnson leading the way in points with nine and Madi Finch following with eight.

University of Iowa commit Megan Meyer paced Mason City (8-2, 3-1) with 16 points, all in the second half, and Anna Lensing followed with 11.

The Bobcats matched the Mohawks with 18 fouls on the night, and O’Hare said oddly enough she found that encouraging.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“We have really been working on trying to attack people in practice,” she said. “When you put the ball on the floor you are going right at them, one of our goals was actually to get called for two charges because I want us to be that aggressive when we are taking it to the basket. Sometimes the girl gets in front of us and we pick up our dribble, we don’t just keep going right at them and that’s something we have to keep working on over Christmas break.”

Marshalltown now heads into the break with some positive energy, especially considering it already has as many wins this season as it has in the past three years combined.

“Obviously getting wins is huge for us, and two wins in this first half of the season is great,” O’Hare said. “It’s something we can continue to build on. We kind of go in spurts, even tonight we would break their press and have a wide-open layups, but we just didn’t knock them down. There’s glimpses of hope right there that we can try to build on, we just need to see them more consistently.”

The Bobcats will return from the winter break on Jan. 4 when they travel to face Southeast Polk.

Mason City 69, Marshalltown 27

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

At Marshalltown

MASON CITY (8-2, 3-1) — Megan Meyer 4 8-11 16, Anna Lensing 4 2-4 11, Anna Deets 3 0-0 9, Jaeda Whitner 2 2-2 6, Megan Hollander 2 1-2 5, Ali Rood 3 0-0 9, Emma Hollander 0 0-0 0, Sami Miller 3 0-0 8, Hanna Lang 0 2-2 2, Brooke Anderson 2 0-0 2, Ashley Latham 0 1-3 1, Jada Williams 0 0-0 0, Tiegan Barkema 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 22 16-24 69.

MARSHALLTOWN (2-8, 1-3) — Alyvia Chadderdon 1 0-0 2, Erica Johnson 3 2-5 9, Kyra Feldman 2 0-0 4, Madi Finch 3 2-3 8, Emma Younkin 0 0-0 0, Shakeiya Taylor 0 0-0 0, Priscilla Vergara 0 1-2 1, Gabby Himes 0 1-7 1, Olivia Brintnall 0 0-0 0, Paige Wertz 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 10 6-18 27.

MASON CITY 27 32 7 5 — 69

MHS 7 5 10 7 — 27

3-Point Goals–MC 9 (Deets 3, Rood 3, Miller 2, Lensing), MHS 1 (Johnson). Total Fouls–MC 18, MHS 18. Fouled out–none.