West Marshall dropped to 1-4 overall and 0-3 in the Heart of Iowa. Nevada improved to 5-0 and 3-0 behind 10 team 3-pointers, including four for John Nelson who scored a game-high 24 points for the Cubs.

“They like to shoot a lot of threes and they shoot it well,” West Marshall head coach Kory Hobbs said. “We did a really good job of contesting them tonight for the most part, but they make contested shots sometimes and they made the open ones, too, when we had a few breakdowns.”

Trailing 32-23 at halftime, the Trojans were pulled under by a 17-9 flurry from Nevada to start the third quarter that included three 3-pointers, one from Nelson and two more from Easton Gray who finished with 14 for the Cubs.

Nevada’s second-half surge was aided by turnovers created from the quick, long Nevada defenders.

“How they put pressure on teams always gives us a couple fits and challenges,” Hobbs said. “We did a pretty good job of handling that but there were definitely times where it gave us some fits, and that was probably another separator in the game.

Cash Johnston led the Trojans with 11 points, six of which came in the first quarter as the Trojans kept close at 17-13 after eight minutes before the Cubs got momentum in the second quarter.

AJ Dee added eight points and Andrew Tollefson, Owen Siegert and Noah DeSotel all contributed six points each for West Marshall.

“We knew they wanted to play fast, which isn’t necessarily our style,” Hobbs said. “But we executed and played our style of offensive basketball well. We had one or two stints where we got caught up in their speed, and that allowed them to go on a couple of runs.”

The Trojans are on the road next week for more Heart of Iowa action against South Hamilton on Tuesday and are at Greene County on Friday.

“We’ve defended really well against some really good teams so far this year,” Hobbs said. “That’s one of the hardest things to teach as a coach, so having that already with these guys is only going to make them better.”

Nevada 63, West Marshall 47

At State Center

NEVADA — Kyle Kingsbury 1 0-0 3, Easton Gray 5 0-0 14, Kane Williams 2 1-4 5, John Nelson 9 2-2 24, Alec Higgins 7 0-0 15, Gavin Egeland 0 1-2 1, Drake Hinson 0 1-2 1. TOTALS 24 5-10 63.

WEST MARSHALL — Andrew Tollefson 2 2-4 6, AJ Dee 3 0-0 8, Preston Reese 1 0-0 2, Caden Pfantz 0 0-0 0, Owen Siegert 2 2-4 6, Jace Eich 0 0-0 0, Lucas Barnes 2 0-0 4, DJ Ridout 3 1-3 4, Noah DeSotel 3 0-2 6, Cash Johnston 4 1-2 11. TOTALS 18 6-17 47.

3-Point Goals–Nevada 10 (Gray 4, Nelson 4, Kingsbury, Higgins); West Marshall 5 (Johnston 2, Dee 2, Ridout). Total fouls–Nevada 20, WM 16. Fouled out–Kingsbury, Egeland.