All it took was one quick stretch for Des Moines East to amass enough momentum to steal a victory from the Marshalltown boys’ basketball team.

The Scarlets scored a 9-0 run over the first two minutes of the fourth quarter to erase a five-point deficit and eventually beat the Bobcats 45-42 on Friday night inside the Roundhouse.

East (2-0) converted a pair of live-ball turnovers into back-to-back layups to cap a nine-point surge that sent the Bobcats (2-1) to their first loss of the young campaign.

Marshalltown had the ball last after Malik Williams made 1-of-2 free throws with 4.1 seconds left, to make it 44-42 on the scoreboard, but the Bobcats failed to get up a final shot before the buzzer sounded.

An official scoring error returned a missing point to the Scarlets after the game, making it a three-point deficit to mark East’s second win against Marshalltown in their last 10 meetings.

“We turned it over,” shrugged MHS head coach Michael Appel. “We turned it over for points where they’re getting layups. We struggled to score for a time down the stretch and their hard ball pressure affected us a little bit more than it should have.”

Marshalltown took a 36-31 lead into the fourth quarter before the Scarlets scored the next nine points. Julius Manson hit a 3-pointer from the corner, Samson Amenu went coast-to-coast for a layup and then swiped the ball for another, and Jayvion Hanson turned another turnover into a layup for a 40-36 East lead.

An official scoring debate led to a point being taken off the scoreboard from East’s total, but in the end it wasn’t enough to impact the outcome after Marshalltown failed to get up a final shot.

“I think some fatigue definitely set in,” Appel said. “We talked (Thursday) night about toughness, grinding it out and figuring out ways, but we didn’t quite have that tonight. Obviously that’s hard to do on back-to-back nights.”

Hanson led East with 13 points, Amenu had 12 and Manson finished with eight.

Marshalltown got a game-high 14 points from Kyle Smith, Jacob Hayes finished with 12, and Drake Gersema totaled nine.

Freshman guard Damian Segovia scored five of his six points in the first quarter, and classmate Larrs Schoenfelder chipped in a free throw.

Smith made it a double-double with 11 rebounds, Gersema had six boards, and Segovia racked up six assists in the defeat.

“It’s still early on right now, the first week of the season we’re 2-1 and that’s a good week for us but obviously we would like to have this one,” said Appel. “We’re still young, we’re still learning and we’ve gotta just stick with it. It’s not the end of the world here, it’s just one game in a long season, and we’ve gotta bounce back, learn some things from this and keep moving forward.”

The Bobcats are back at home next week with games Tuesday against Des Moines Hoover and Friday, Dec. 12, against Mason City.

Des Moines East 45, Marshalltown 42

DM EAST (2-0) — Jayvion Hanson 4 4-5 13, Samson Amenu 5 2-2 12, Julius Manson 3 0-3 8, Malik Williams 2 1-2 5, Daniel Tut 2 0-0 5, D’Angelo Parker 0 0-0 0, Donovan Rockers 0 0-0 0, Davion Curry 0 0-0 0, Cedrique Irishura 1 0-0 2, Tresaun Parker 0 0-0 0, Jordan Cason 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 17 7-12 45.

MARSHALLTOWN (2-1) — Drake Gersema 4 0-0 9, Kyle Smith 4 3-4 14, Damian Segovia 2 1-2 6, Jacob Hayes 6 0-0 12, Larrs Schoenfelder 0 1-2 1, Gavin Misek 0 0-0 0, Talon Halsted 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 16 5-8 42.

DM EAST 13 9 9 14 — 45

MHS 15 10 11 6 — 42

3-Point Goals–DM East 4 (Manson 2, Hanson, Tut), MHS 5 (Smith 3, Gersema, Segovia). Team Fouls–DM East 16, MHS 12. Fouled Out–none.