The Bobcats couldn’t figure out how to finish possessions against the Mason City Riverhawks, trailing 11-0 before scoring and 25-2 after the first quarter on the way to a 58-17 defeat. It drops Marshalltown to 0-6 on the season and 0-1 in the Iowa Alliance North. Mason City’s record improved to 2-2 overall and 2-0 in conference play.

Turnovers were the main culprit — both when trying to break Mason City’s full-court press and in the half-court. Too often, passes would go straight to an opposing player or find their way out of bounds before the Bobcats could get a shot attempt up. As the turnovers added up, Mason City was banking the fast breaks and open lanes on the offensive side as well. Riverhawk guards were able to find their ways into the lane and either force a foul or create a scoring opportunity.

Head coach Brian Murphy was pretty clear in his assessment of the Bobcats’ offensive woes.

“We need the game to slow down for us mentally, and you can tell we’re just not there consistently,” Murphy said. “I saw some progress as far as our placement, we were getting to the right spots but still not making the right decisions. That’s where we’re allowing other teams to dictate what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.”

Sydney Kapayou was the one bright spot on offense in the first half, scoring five of the team’s seven points and aggressively getting into the paint to test the Riverhawk post players. She got to the line four times as well.

Kinsley Bowie scored Marshalltown’s first points of the game on a fast break.

In the second half, the Bobcats defended much better as a team and were successful in holding the Riverhawks to single digits in the third and fourth quarters and 18 points total, even as the visitors worked in most of the bench. Murphy saw positives in the way the Bobcats played on that end of the floor.

“When we let the flow of the game start impacting those individual plays, that’s when you can see our rotations are slow and we don’t box out,” Murphy said. “WHen we focus a little bit at a time, we look like a different team.”

Sara Huffman was the Bobcats’ leading scorer with six points, all scored in the second half. Kapayou had five and three players scored two each — Bowie, Amaya Moore and Anistyn Borsch.

Marshalltown’s next game is Tuesday at 6:15 at Des Moines Lincoln.

Mason City 58, Marshalltown 17

MASON CITY (2-2, 2-0) — Reggi Spotts 7 2-2 17, Kelsey McDonough 3 0-0 8, Machaela Trask 1 0-0 3, Grace Berding 2 -2 28, Jaelyn Falls 3 1-3 7, Kylie Bergman 0 0-0 0, Audra Mulholland 1 0-0 2, Shae Benson 2 1-2 5, Abby Latham 1 0-0 2, Isabelle Harty 0 2-2 2, Zaria Falls 1 0-0 2, Rachel Shipman 0 0-0 0, Maggie Berding 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 22 8-11 58.

MARSHALLTOWN (0-6, 0-1) — Sara Huffman 3 0-0 6, Aubrie Tejada 0 0-0 0, Anistyn Borsch 1 0-0 2, Amaya Moore 1 0-2 2, Sydney Kapayou 1 3-5 5, Kinsley Bowie 1 0-0 2, Millie Heitmann 0 0-0 0, Ellie Hughes 0 0-0 0, Jorja Janssen 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 7 3-7 17.

MASON CITY 25 15 9 9 — 58

MHS 2 5 4 6 — 17

3-Point Goals–Mason City 6 (McDonough 2, G. Berding 2, Spotts, Benson). Total Fouls–Mason City 14, MHS 10. Fouled Out–none.