The Marshalltown girls’ basketball team opened the season with two games against future conference foes and a third against a current CIML opponent.

After Tuesday night, it isn’t hard to see what prompted the Bobcats to look elsewhere for a more level playing field.

Class 5A No. 11 Dowling Catholic improved to 4-0 to start the season with just its second win over in-state competition, blasting the Bobcats 73-15 on Tuesday at the Roundhouse.

Three players scored in double figures for the Maroons, who forced Marshalltown (0-3) into 31 turnovers while limiting the Bobcats to just 24 field-goal attempts.

Facing Dowling in the second of back-to-back nights on the court made for a tough time for MHS, especially with an illness circulating its way through the locker room. The Bobcats lined up without a pair of guards in uniform — sophomore Sara Huffman and senior Zaielah Newman — and ballhanding became a premium Marshalltown couldn’t afford.

Dowling’s full-court man-to-man pressure plagued the Bobcats from start to finish, as turnovers resulted in layups for the perennial powerhouse Maroons.

“I thought we struggled with the physicality of their defense, where we were allowing an arm to slow us down in some cases — legal or not — and we’re going to see that all season,” said MHS head coach Brian Murphy. “Franklin the other thing we’ve got to recognize is when we’re off-ball we’ve got to do a better job of clearing out when that drive starts because we’re bringing second defenders too often. That’s just part of that rhythm and understanding of offense in general.”

Seniors Lily Roberts (eight points), Rachel Smith (five) and Kaylin Smith (two) accounted for all of Marshalltown’s scoring in the lopsided loss. Smith’s jumper broke the Bobcats’ scoring silence two and a half minutes into the contest to make it 3-2 Maroons, but the visitors scored the game’s next 18 points to pull away for good.

Dowling tallied the first 20 points of the second half as well.

Freshman guard Ava Zediker scored a game-high 23 points to lead the Maroons, who started the season with a double-digit victory over 4A No. 11 Mason City before winning a pair of three-point nailbiters in St. Paul. Dowling defeated La Crosse Aquinas (Wis.) and Providence Academy (Minn.) over the weekend in the Twin Cities Tip-Off Classic before reasserting themselves as an in-state power on Tuesday night.

Alex Gaskell scored 13 points off the bench, Emma Gipple finished with 10 points for the Maroons and three others — Julia Moore, Lauryn Frerichs and Olivia Spracklin — chipped in six points apiece.

Too many of their points, Murphy said, came from turnovers, but he was pleased with the way his Bobcats defended in the half-court.

“Overall I was really proud of our defensive effort,” he said. “I thought we dug deep in the first half and you could see we were really locked in on that end, and that’s been a trend through all three games this year where it’s our offense leading to transition buckets for them. When we can limit them to half-court offense, we’re making teams work a lot more and making them take — generally speaking — contested shots.

“Now we’ve just got to figure out ways to bring that unity to the offensive end where we’re getting more on the same page.”

Sophie Younkin led the Bobcats with seven rebounds and smith finished with four. Amaya Moore added three boards off the bench.

“There’s a lot of things we can take away from this game, but I think at the end of the day there’s a lot of things that we can chalk up to fatigue and we move on and look ahead to Mason City,” Murphy said.

The Bobcats host the Mohawks on Friday night.

Dowling Catholic 73, Marshalltown 15

DOWLING (4-0) — Ava Zediker 10 0-0 23, Julia Moore 2 1-4 6, Emma Gipple 5 0-2 10, Lauryn Frerichs 2 0-2 6, Layla Tretten 0 0-0 0, Olivia Raedeker 0 0-0 0, Julia Friedrich 0 0-0 0, Grace Kelly 0 0-0 0, Marin Heller 2 0-0 4, Mollie Moist 1 0-0 3, Olivia Spracklin 3 0-0 6, Addy Smith 0 0-0 0, Ellie Olson 0 2-2 2, Alex Gaskell 6 1-3 13. TOTALS 30 4-13 73.

MARSHALLTOWN (0-3) — Rachel Smith 2 1-1 5, Lily Roberts 3 2-2 8, Malena Kammerer 0 0-0 0, Sophie Younkin 0 0-0 0, Kaylin Smith 1 0-0 2, Mya Gallegos 0 0-0 0, Amaya Moore 0 0-0 0, Aubrie Tejada 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 6 3-3 15.

DOWLING 10 20 22 21 — 73

MHS 2 4 2 7 — 15

3-Point Goals–Dowling 9 (Zediker 3, Frerichs 2, Spracklin 2, Moore, Moist). Total Fouls–Dowling 6, MHS 12. Fouled Out–none.