Sometimes you simply have to doff your cap to the opposing team.

The Marshalltown Community College women’s basketball team followed its scouting report and granted Southwestern CC the opportunity to shoot from 3-point range, but the Spartans connected on a season-high 11 triples in a 71-62 victory over the Tigers on Saturday at the Student Activity Center.

Southwestern (7-7, 7-6) attempted a season-high 31 3-pointers and finished with a better percentage (35.5) than in any previous game this winter. The Spartans entered shooting just 21.4 percent from beyond the arc, but blistered MCC’s nets in a back-and-forth battle.

It was Southwestern’s only weapon against Tiger sophomore Eva Zaragoza, as the sophomore forward from Madrid, Spain, scored a career-high 27 points. She had already achieved a new career best by halftime (21), but the sharpshooting cooled in the second half for her and the rest of the squad.

MCC (1-11, 1-11) led by as many as five points in the first half, trailed by only two points at halftime and had a 46-44 advantage with 2:15 remaining in the third quarter. But Southwestern’s surprisingly scorching 3-point shooting proved to be the Tigers’ undoing.

“They shot a lot more threes because we allowed them to shoot threes,” MCC head coach Steve Garber said. “I’m not sure their stats online are correct because they’re very poor 3-point shooters but that doesn’t show with what they’re doing. Today it was better than what shows on the stat sheet but they knocked down threes and that’s what we wanted to force them to do.”

The Spartans got three-straight treys to close the third quarter and another point to open the fourth as their 10-0 run spanned four minutes and stymied MCC’s chances of a comeback. Southwestern quickly got out to a 13-point lead and finished off the win from the free-throw line, going 6-for-6 down the stretch.

“We were up 46-44 and they went on a 10-0 run and that was kind of a killer,” Garber said, “but our kids didn’t fold. They stayed after it and tried to get back into the game, and that’s a tribute to them.”

Zaragoza got back into the scoring mix with a basket from the low block and a pair of free throws. Nuria Castillo cashed in her only 3-pointer of the game and MCC was quickly back within eight. Southwestern’s Brielle Baker’s ensuing bucket was a microcosm of the fourth quarter, however, as her third-chance layup left the Tigers down by 10 with only 2:45 to go.

“Overall it was probably our best game of the year as far as developing and improving, offense and defense,” Garber said. “Defensively we gave up way too many offensive boards and we talked about that, and some players stepped up there. We have to convince our guards that they have to rebound also and that’s something that they’re not used to, but they either do it or things stay the same so we’ll work on that.”

Southwestern scored 10 points on 10 offensive rebounds in the win, beating MCC on the boards 41-32.

“The effort was consistent, there wasn’t as much of a lull in dropping our heads and not putting forth effort,” Garber said. “I thought the consistency of the effort and everything was probably the best we’ve had all year so we just need to build off that and keep on keeping on.”

The loss was MCC’s 11th-straight, but it was just the second time this season the Tigers have been defeated by fewer than 11 points and also the sixth occasion in which the team has scored 60 points or more.

Zaragoza’s career day played a big part. She also led the Tigers with 13 rebounds, shot 11-of-19 from the field, 3-of-9 from 3-point range and logged a collegiate-high 36 minutes.

“She can knock down threes and she can post players up,” Garber said. “She had a great game and hopefully she’ll continue that confidence and lead us to more games where we can score over 60 because we’ve been struggling all year with scoring.”

Marshalltown shot 37 percent from the field but just 26 percent from 3-point land (10-for-38) and 44 percent from the free-throw stripe (4-for-9).

Heeni Blakey made four 3-pointers and finished with 12 points, while Carolina Rodriguez-Sanchez scored all of her 10 points in the second half to go with eight rebounds. Carla Dorta-Perez tallied seven points, seven assists and two steals.

“The offense moved the ball around, ran the offenses the way they were designed to be run for the most part, so I think overall from tip to end this was the most consistent game we played all year long,” Garber said. “We were passing the ball, looking for open teammates. We had open shots both halves and we’ve just got to knock them down and eventually I think that will happen.

“All the coach can do is design plays to put players in position where they can succeed and get open shots and have good shot selection each time down the floor. I thought we had very good shot selection today overall, just some didn’t fall.”

Whynter Waterhouse-Brennan led Southwestern with 20 points and eight rebounds, while Alyssa Morris and Jordan Richards both scored 13 points. Each of those three players made three 3-pointers — which was the season-high for both Waterhouse-Brennan and Richards.

Next up for MCC is a trip to Mason City for Saturday’s 1 p.m. clash with NIACC (3-11, 2-10).

“Having half the team come in second semester, we’re basically at the beginning of the season if it was a normal season,” Garber said. “Right now, with how many practices we’ve had with the team we have right now, it would basically be November 1 and we’re starting our first games. The development has shown the last couple games we just need to continue that track.”

Southwestern CC 71, Marshalltown CC 62

SOUTHWESTERN (7-7, 7-6) — Baker 3-12 4-4 11, Waterhouse-Brennan 8-21 1-2 20, Morris 4-12 2-2 13, Tucker 4-11 0-0 9, Sherrill 0-2 0-0 0, Richards 5-11 0-0 13, Allen 2-2 0-0 4, Brown 0-0 1-2 1. TOTALS 26-71 8-10 71.

MCC (1-11, 1-11) — Blakey 4-10 0-0 12, Rodriguez-Sanchez 5-10 0-2 10, Dorta-Perez 2-8 1-2 7, Castillo 1-11 0-0 3, Zaragoza 11-21 2-4 27, Wright 0-2 0-0 0, Mebratu 1-1 1-1 3, Rogers 0-2 0-0 0. TOTALS 24-65 4-9 62.

SOUTHWESTERN 18 17 18 18 — 71

MCC 16 17 13 16 — 62

3-Point Goals–Southwestern 11-31 (Waterhouse-Brennan 3-7, Richards 3-7, Morris 3-8, Tucker 1-3, Baker 1-6), MCC 10-38 (Blakey 4-9, Zaragoza 3-9, Dorta-Perez 2-6, Castillo 1-9, Wright 0-1, Rodriguez-Sanchez 0-2, Rogers 0-2). Rebounds–Southwestern 41 (Morris, Tucker 9), MCC 32 (Zaragoza 13). Assists–Southwestern 7 (Tucker 5), MCC 15 (Dorta-Perez 7). Total Fouls–Southwestern 14, MCC 10.