URBANDALE — The Marshalltown boys’ basketball team will have to accept the fact that some nights the shots simply aren’t going to drop.

The Bobcats made just a pair of 3-pointers and couldn’t keep pace with Urbandale, falling 63-35 on Friday night.

In a grueling opening week, Marshalltown fell to 0-3. Urbandale (1-1) got a game-high 28 points from Grant Uecker to achieve its first win of the season.

“This is a pretty hard first week for us,” said MHS head coach Michael Appel. “We shot it pretty well against Roosevelt and played extremely hard against them, and then Thursday we came in against Newton with not quite the right mindset of how we need to approach a game and they took it to us. And then we had to play tonight, so it’s just a combination of things.

“I don’t want to make excuses, but it is hard. It’s a hard start for us.”

Marshalltown’s lineup will be shorter than most across from it this season, so shots from the outside will need to drop. On Friday night, the lid seemed stuck on the Bobcats’ bucket.

Kyle Smith led MHS with 11 points, making one of the team’s 3-pointers, while Carter Giannetto, Cory Smith and Rogelio Ceren added seven points apiece.

The Bobcats continue to play without top returning scorer Treshaun Brooks, and LaMar Johnson sat after sustaining an apparent leg injury a night earlier in a home loss to Newton.

Marshalltown was limited to single-digit scoring in three of four quarters, save for a 19-13 advantage achieved in the third period.

“For the most part I thought our effort was good the whole game,” Appel said. “I thought we were more focused and ready to play. In the second half we got a little more aggressive to the rim at times, and that’s big for us. That allows us to do a lot of different things if you can get guys to the rim.

“We’re just having a really hard time scoring the ball right now.”

Brevin Phillips, a 6-foot-6 forward, contributed 13 points for Urbandale. He and Uecker combined to score 41 of Urbandale’s 63 points.

“Teams aren’t scoring a crazy amount of points against us,” Appel said. “When they do score it a lot of times it’s off of offensive rebounds and getting to the lane off of dribble-drive penetration. So those are two areas we’re really going to focus on to improve going forward into next week.

“I know we’ll do a lot better job of it next week. The guys are great about coming in and being ready to work and having good attitudes.”

The Bobcats go to Des Moines North on Tuesday and Mason City next Friday.

Urbandale 63, Marshalltown 35

At Urbandale

MARSHALLTOWN (0-3) — Carter Giannetto 2 2-2 7, Kyle Smith 4 2-2 11, Cory Smith 3 1-2 7, Rogelio Ceren 2 3-4 7, Jacob Hayes 0 0-0 0, Jacob Thiessen 0 0-0 0, Ryan Schmit 0 1-2 1, Gatleel Joar 0 0-0 0, Davis Ragland 1 0-0 2, Tate Riang 0 0-0 0, Jose Vargas Cervantes 0 0-0 0, Blane Landeros 0 0-0 0, Will Swartz 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 12 9-12 35.

URBANDALE (1-1) — Brevin Phillips 4 4-4 13, Calvin Flood 0 2-2 2, Grant Uecker 10 6-6 28, Jonathan Walker 2 0-0 4, Caden Burns 3 1-2 7, Jake Pargeon 0 0- 0, Mitchell Klaas 0 0-2 0, Keane Riley 0 0-0 0, Jackson Weber 1 0-0 2, Turner Brown 0 0-2 0, Davis Harderson 1 0-0 2, Elijah O’Dear 0 0-0 0, Zach Glynn 0 0-0 0, Thomas Salmon 1 1-2 3, Blake France 0 0-0 0, Ter Kuany 1 0-0 2, Caden Sturgill 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 23 14-20 63.

MHS 5 4 19 7 — 35

URBANDALE 13 19 13 18 — 63

3-Point Goals–MHS 2 (Giannetto, K. Smith), Urbandale 3 (Uecker 2, Phillips). Team Fouls–MHS 19, Urbandale 16. Fouled Out–none.