Even as Nevada inched closer with increased second-half pressure, the Trojans never trailed in a 54-41 victory over the Cubs at West Marshall High School.

Bella Borgos poured in 26 points for West Marshall, including some key shots when Nevada was chipping away at a 28-15 halftime deficit.

The Cubs were within one, 36-35, after a 7-0 start to the final quarter for Nevada. But a Lily Zahnd second-chance bucket and a Borgos three gave the Trojans some more wiggle room, and Borgos made 6-of-8 free throws to close out Nevada down the stretch.

“Our team chemistry has been growing in practices, so we can all trust one another whenever someone else has the ball in their hands or when it comes to getting those free throws,” Borgos said.

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - West Marshall junior Lily Zahnd (22) shoots over Nevada’s Reagan Davis during the first half of Friday’s game in State Center.

Zahnd added eight points and Audrey Girard and Shelby Johnson finished with five points each for the Trojans. Dakota Hendricks scored 15 points to lead Nevada.

West Marshall looked good early on as they were quick and disruptive to create easy fast-break buckets on the other end.

While Borgos will get her points — she averaged 24 points per game coming into tonight — it’s imperative to the Trojans that other scoring options get rolling, too.

“We know Bella’s going to get guarded pretty tough throughout the season,” West Marshall coach Cody Hackett said. “So we’ve worked a lot this week on creating shots for teammates, to ease the pressure on her. And we shot better tonight, which hopefully builds confidence in these girls to know that they can shoot, that I want them to shoot some of these shots.”

Nevada got a 9-0 spurt in the third quarter to inch closer heading to the final quarter down 36-28.

“They were playing some tough defense, and we were getting a little flustered,” Hackett said. “But our girls just kept fighting.”

The Cubs had a chance to overtake the Trojans in the fourth quarter but were hampered by poor free-throw shooting, making just three of their 11 opportunities at the charity stripe in the final quarter and finishing 6-of-15 for the game.

The win was West Marshall’s first in the Heart of Iowa after dropping games to Roland-Story and PCM earlier in the season, improving to 3-2 overall.

“We had a few times where we had to talk to each other and support each other,” Borgos said of tonight’s home stretch.. “Give each other confidence after a missed shot and let them know what they can do to fix it for next time. It’s just all coming together.”

The Trojan girls play three next week, all on the road — South Hamilton on Tuesday, Grundy Center on Thursday and Greene County on Friday.

West Marshall 54, Nevada 41

At State Center

NEVADA — Isabelle Nelson 5 2-6 12, Dakota Hendricks 5 0-0 15, Cinamon Hazlitt 2 2-5 8, Reagan Davis 1 1-2 3, Jorie Hillman 1 1-2 3. Totals 14 6-15 41.

WEST MARSHALL — Bella Borgos 8 8-10 26, Lily Zahnd 4 0-3 8, Audrey Girard 1 3-4 5, Shelby Johnston 2 1-2 5, Halle Jones 2 0-1 4, Rachel Randall 1 1-2 4, Reese Jensen 1 0-0 2, Natalie Nichols 0 0-2 0. Totals 19 13-24 54.

3-Point Goals–Nevada 7 (Hendricks 5, Hazlitt 2); WM 3 (Borgos 2, Randall).