In Tuesday’s Class 2A District 13 rematch, East Marshall did them one better.

Mustang seniors Drew Runner and Logan Bowie scored 19 and 17 points respectively to lead East Marshall to a 65-44 victory over the host Trojans, erasing the long-forgotten memories of a 64-60 loss to West Marshall on Jan. 5 in Le Grand.

The reward is Thursday’s trip to Dike-New Hartford (15-2) for a district semifinal showdown with the fifth-ranked Wolverines. Regardless of the outcome, East Marshall head coach Adam Bauder was excited to see his squad come together to avenge an earlier loss to their cross-county rival while playing together for a full 32 minutes.

“We just hope to put a scare into them, honestly, and if we execute the gameplan the way we want, we’ll just leave the results to how they go,” Bauder said of Thursday’s contest. “Have fun playing, that’s what we’ve been really talking about this year a lot. It took us a long time to gel together but it feels like it’s coming together at the right time.”

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - East Marshall’s Bo Lee (11) and West Marshall’s TJ Schuler (20) battle for a rebound during Tuesday’s Class 2A district basketball game in State Center.

Speaking of the right time — Adrian Arifi’s timing couldn’t have been much better for the Mustangs. East Marshall’s 5-foot-8 sophomore swished 4-of-4 3-point attempts and finished with a career-high 12 points to help his club pull away in what had begun as a back-and-forth affair.

“Huge,” Bauder said of Arifi’s impact. “Can’t say enough about him. The stroke is sweet, the kid can shoot it. We’re hoping he gets taller, but he’s come a long way. It’s awesome for him just to come out and do that against West Marshall.”

Arifi’s contribution was key to the Mustangs shooting 7-for-16 from 3-point range, which helped to counterbalance the team’s control of the paint. Runner had a height advantage under the basket and Bowie was getting his points from the high post, and East Marshall’s 3-point precision made it too much for West Marshall (7-13) to defend.

The Trojans were led by junior guard Joey Tollefson’s 14 points, but his evening took a turn when he made a 3-pointer to start the third quarter but landed on a defender’s foot. He hobbled through the second half, unable to have the sort of impact he needed for his team.

“We were hoping to attack inside as much as we could,” said West Marshall head coach Paul de Neui. “That has always been what we would like to do is attack the inside, and then they did a nice job taking away anything we had inside so we were forced to shoot from outside. It obviously wasn’t falling for us.”

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

The Trojans finished 7-for-25 from beyond the arc (28 percent) and were 17-for-57 (30 percent) from the field overall. West Marshall also got pounded on the boards, 38-20.

Runner was 8-for-12 from the field and also had 12 rebounds — five offensive — to help East Marshall hold down control of the paint.

“It’s kind of been the same song since Christmas break because after losing (6-foot-2 senior) Brayden (Evertsen) we lost our inside presence and therefore [Runner] could dominate,” de Neui said. “We’re just not as big as he is and he did a nice job.”

East Marshall’s central focus on defense was to deter Tollefson from attacking the basket and creating scoring opportunities for his teammates. West Marshall started strong offensively as Parker Reese hit a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter and Grahm Nason another. But after taking a 16-all tie into the second quarter, the Trojans went scoreless for nearly seven minutes as East Marshall built an eight-point halftime advantage.

“Tollefson: that’s what we were worried about,” Bauder said. “Our gameplan was to sag off a copule guys and make sure he didn’t create stuff. If they made enough threes to beat us, so be it I guess.”

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

Arifi hit a pair of triples and Ethan Espenscheid had another during the Mustangs’ 13-0 run before West Marshall countered with the final five points of the half.

The Trojans never got within six points the rest of the way.

“With us it’s just executing the gameplan all game,” Bauder said. “We’re good in stretches but a lot of times in the fourth quarter when it’s getting a little crunch time-y, some of our guys forget what got us to this point and revert to some bad habits.”

Bo Lee pitched in six points for the Mustangs, Espenscheid had five, Junior Brown four and Blain Augspurger had the final basket of the game. Bowie contributed eight rebounds while Espenscheid had five assists.

For West Marshall, Peyton Hart, Reese and Nason had nine points apiece, and Owen Siegert added a second-half 3-pointer. Hart led the Trojans with seven rebounds and four steals, Nason had five boards and four assists, Reese had five boards and Tollefson tallied four assists.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

East Marshall 65, West Marshall 44

EAST MARSHALL (7-12) — Bo Lee 2 0-0 6, Ethan Espenscheid 1 2-2 5, Logan Bowie 9 1-3 19, Junior Brown 1 2-3 4, Drew Runner 8 1-2 17, Joe Terrones 0 0-0 0, Toby Ryan 0 0-0 0, Cale Vos 0 0-0 0, Whitaker Crouse 0 0-0 0, Blain Augspurger 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 26 6-10 65.

WEST MARSHALL (7-13) — Joey Tollefson 5 1-1 14, Grahm Nason 4 0-0 9, Brandt Dickey 0 0-0 0, Peyton Hart 4 1-1 9, Parker Reese 3 1-2 9, Owen Siegert 1 0-0 3, Cody Braddy 0 0-0 0, Jackson Porter 0 0-0 0, TJ Schuler 0 0-0 0, Josiah Hand 0 0-0 0, Josh Pinnick 0 0-0 0, Preston Reese 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 17 3-4 44.

E. MARSHALL 16 13 19 17 — 65

W. MARSHALL 16 5 14 9 — 44

3-Point Goals–EM 7 (Arifi 4, Lee 2, Espenscheid), WM 7 (Tollefson 3, Pa. Reese 2, Nason, Siegert). Team Fouls–EM 8, WM 14. Fouled out–Nason.