With a 38-31 win over Des Moines Lincoln in the Roundhouse on Tuesday night, the Bobcats have matched last season’s win total before the calendar even flips to 2024.

MHS freshman Amairra Johnson led the Bobcats with 11 points and sophomore Kinsley Bowie contributed eight points. Marshalltown improved to 3-4 overall, tying for the most wins the girls have claimed in a single season since winning six games in the 2014-15 campaign.

Tuesday’s accomplishment is small in the grand design of the season to come, but for a program that has struggled to win basketball games in the last decade, the impact is not lost on MHS head coach Brian Murphy.

Double that impact for a Bobcat team that won without two regular starters in Millie Heitmann (knee) and Sydney Kapayou (illness).

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - Marshalltown freshman guard Amairra Johnson (3) drives for a layup past Des Moines Linconl’s Cassidy Dickey (55) for two of her team-high 11 points on Tuesday night at the Roundhouse.

“This is one of my proudest moments as a coach,” Murphy said. “When you’re down players, you need players to step up, and every person that touched the floor tonight did exactly what we asked. Balanced scoring, we had people locked in defensively on the scouting report, all of these small things that add up to a great victory.”

Bobcat freshman Frankie Long added six points and 16 rebounds, Bowie chipped in six rebounds and six steals and Jorja Janssen added six points and four steals.

It was far from a perfect game — MHS was 9-for-28 from the free-throw line and Lincoln whittled a 13-point fourth-quarter lead down to five down the stretch — but the Bobcats stayed strong and made the plays necessary to win.

“If we have a turnover, we have each other’s backs,” Bowie said. “We don’t get mad at each other. … We took our time on offense looking up and down the court to see who’s open and took good quality shots.”

Defensive effort went a long way for the Bobcats in the end.

“We were trying to deny a couple of their shooters and get them out of rhythm,” Murphy said. “And we anticipated really well off their ball pressure.”

There’s a lot of season left, but even with bumps in the road the MHS girls are showing their ability to persevere.

“We’ve brought a lot of familiar faces back, but we’re not the same team,” Murphy said. “We’ve got girls like Frankie [Long] and Amairra coming in, Frankie’s rebounding and Amairra does so many things in the open floor defensively that we can’t teach. And then you see development from our younger players, Kinsley had a great night tonight, especially on defense, and those kinds of things have been the story for us so far.”

Marshalltown 38, Des Moines Lincoln 31

DM LINCOLN (2-4) — Lierra Martinez 0 0-0 0, Ava Signs 1 1-2 4, Leiah Ochoa 3 3-4 9, Carlee Julius 2 6-8 10, Cassidy Dickey 2 0-0 5, Keyalah Key 0 0-0 0, Monique Stonehocker 1 0-2 2, Korelyn Brown 0 1-2 1. TOTALS 9 11-18 31.

MARSHALLTOWN (3-4) — Amairra Johnson 4 2-6 11, Kinsley Bowie 3 0-4 8, Tania Mora 0 1-2 1, Ellie Hughes 2 2-4 6, Frankie Long 2 2-6 6, Aubrie Tejada 0 0-0 0, Jorja Janssen 2 2-6 6, Harper Wilson 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 13 9-28 38.

DM LINCOLN 9 7 5 10 — 31

MHS 9 9 12 8 — 38

3-Point Goals–DML 2 (Signs, Dickey), MHS 3 (Bowie 2, Johnson). Team Fouls–DML 21, MHS 15. Fouled Out–Brown, Long.