Tre Brooks and Marshalltown boys basketball had something to prove Friday night.

The Bobcats had a hot start and settled in to hold off Waterloo West for a 52-46 win in an Iowa Alliance-Mississippi Valley Conference crossover at the Roundhouse.

Brooks led a trio of double-digit MHS scorers with 17 points; Kyle Smith and Cory Smith had 16 and 12 points, respectively. MHS improved to 6-5 while West fell to 4-5.

“This was one we had a stamp on,” Brooks said. “They’re a good team from a different conference and we wanted to show what we were made of.”

Marshalltown started on a 12-2 run that included two 3-point baskets from Kyle Smith in a game where the Bobcats never trailed.

“That makes it easier for all of us,” Brooks said of Kyle’s shooting. “We throw it to Kyle and he puts it up and it’s an easy make, I’m running down the court already.”

West was within two at the end of the third quarter, but another 11-2 spurt put the West in too deep of a deficit.

“Our effort was unbelievable these last two days in practice,” MHS head coach Michael Appel said. “Being focused on Waterloo West, understanding what we had to do to win, how hard we had to play, it was great. This was our best performance this year as far as that goes.”

MHS’ offense hit dry spells throughout the game that opened the door for the Wahawks. The second and third quarters featured runs for West that chipped away at 10-point leads for the Bobcats each time.

But on Friday, Marshalltown bent instead of breaking.

“We relied on defense to not let them make a big run as well,” Appel said. “Getting that big lead right away and having the guys see it go in the hole created some good energy for us and got us settled into the game.”

Brooks scored 12 of his 17 after the halftime horn.

“We’ve been talking with Tre about taking more shots, being more aggressive,” Appel said. “He can get to the paint for those high-percentage shots and suck the defense in to get those other guys open. He did a tremendous job leading our team tonight at the point guard position, being under control and understanding time and score.”

Combined with strong post work from Cory Smith and Kyle Smith looming beyond the arc, the Wahawks couldn’t catch up with the Bobcats.

Joseph Hudson and Parker Berns had 14 points each for West. Wahawk bigs like Hudson, Cooper Doland and Shuncere Wortham were effectively minimized by the Bobcat defense, particularly in the first half.

“Stopping the bigs in the paint was huge,” Kyle Smith said. “We had guys helping over more, our team has done a great job of that, and I’m just so proud of them. … The odds were against us with people thinking we couldn’t get it done but we played our hardest and got the win.”

The Bobcats were also solid in maximizing their possessions in crunch time, squeezing out all but the most miraculous angles for West to try and steal it late.

“The guys understand that we can slow it down with the lead, give us a break a little bit,” Appel said. “We don’t play that many guys, we don’t need to be in a hurry. Then we just run our stuff and get a good look. Our flow of the game was good.”

It’s a short turnaround as the Bobcats return to Alliance action at Waterloo East on Saturday night.

“This has to be a benchmark of what we do to earn this,” Appel said. “We have to stay consistent with that and bring it to the next level now. We weren’t perfect tonight by any means and we’re going to learn and continue to get better. … We don’t want a letdown tomorrow just because we had a good one tonight. We’ve got to be ready for Waterloo East.”

Marshalltown 52, Waterloo West 46

WATERLOO WEST (4-5) — Parker Berns 6 0-0 14, Cooper Doland 0 2-6 2, Bryce Westemeier 4 0-0 9, Joseph Hudson 7 0-0 14, Shuncere Wortham 2 0-2 4, Derrick Akines Jr. 1 0-0 3, Zion Cook-Berns 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 20 2-8 46.

MARSHALLTOWN (6-5) — Carter Giannetto 1 0-0 2, Treshaun Brooks 8 1-4 17, Kyle Smith 6 0-0 16, Cory Smith 5 2-2 12, Rogelio Ceren 2 0-2 5, Jacob Thiessen 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 22 3-8 52.

W. WEST 11 10 12 13 — 46

MHS 18 7 10 17 — 52

3-Point Goals–Waterloo West 4 (Berns 2, Westemeier, Akines Jr.), MHS 5 (K. Smith 4, Ceren). Team Fouls–Waterloo West 13, MHS 11. Fouled Out–none.