PLEASANT HILL — The Marshalltown girls’ basketball team got a harsh reminder of life in the Central Iowa Metropolitan League.

The Bobcats got bullied by Southeast Polk to the tune of a 59-28 loss on Monday night, suffering their first loss of the season in a demonstrative way.

Marshalltown (6-1) committed 34 turnovers, made just seven field goals and fell flat in a chance to prove its unbeaten start to the season against an untraditionally underperforming Southeast Polk squad.

The Rams (2-4) rattled off steal after steal and one transition basket after another in dealing the Bobcats a decisive beatdown.

“We needed a team that was going to push us on offense with their defense,” said MHS head coach Brian Murphy, “and certainly Southeast Polk did that. We were sped up for most of the first half for sure.

“That’s why we wanted to play this game is because we wanted a team that was going to push us and get us to kind of that next level. So certainly there’s a lot of things that we need to take from this game.”

The Bobcats were held to just one field goal in each of the first two quarters in falling behind by a 42-12 margin by halftime. MHS had scoring droughts of five minutes in the first quarter and five and a half minutes in the second as Southeast Polk’s full-court man-to-man pressure proved too much for Marshalltown in the moment.

“By far it’s the best full-court pressure we’ve seen, but I also don’t think it’s pressure that we are unable to handle,” said Murphy. “One of the things this game highlights is we haven’t had to work to get open for most of the season, and against CIML pressure every single pass is kind of its own challenge.”

Brooklyn Ruddy scored 13 of her game-high 18 points in the first half for Southeast Polk and finished as the Rams’ only double-digit scorer. But 11 different players got on the board for the host squad, which led from the outset and never looked back.

Marshalltown fell to 0-6 against CIML competition since leaving for the Iowa Alliance Conference in the fall of 2022. Monday’s 31-point loss was still 10 points better than the Bobcats’ average margin of defeat (41.2) in those previous five games.

“The ability to use this as a learning opportunity as opposed to part of a gauntlet is certainly big,” Murphy said. “It was physical from the tip and I will say that CIML officiating has always and will probably always be officiated differently. It’s just a different level of physicality than I think is allowed anywhere else. It’s been that way for years and it’s hard to understand until you’ve experienced it.”

Frankie Long finished with a team-leading 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Bobcats. Amairra Johnson scored seven points while Jorja Janssen and Morgan Hilderbrand got five points apiece. Janssen and Millie Heitmann both had six rebounds.

The Bobcats are back in action Friday with a home game against Fort Dodge in Alliance North Division action.

Southeast Polk 59, Marshalltown 28

MARSHALLTOWN (6-1) — Amairra Johnson 2 2-5 7, Kinsley Bowie 0 0-0 0, Millie Heitmann 0 0-0 0, Jorja Janssen 0 5-6 5, Frankie Long 4 3-5 11, Mallory Meyeraan 0 0-0 0, Keira Halsted 0 0-0 0, Morgan Hilderbrand 1 3-4 5. TOTALS 7 13-20 28.

SOUTHEAST POLK (2-4) — Brooklyn Ruddy 5 5-10 18, Yasanne Love Smith 2 0-0 5, Alli Bogwill 1 0-0 2, Halle Clark 2 2-4 6, Elyse Bartels 1 3-6 5, Caroline Naeve 0 0-2 0, Ella Wheatly 1 1-1 3, Gracie Wilson 3 0-0 6, Ivy Ohorilko 0 0-0 0, Kalyn Litwiler 0 1-2 1, Sloane Gaffney 0 0-0 0, Presley Zeutenhorst 1 0-0 2, Izzy Bogwill 1 0-0 2, Olivie Twohey 2 0-0 6. TOTALS 20 12-25 59.

MHS 7 5 8 8 — 28

SE POLK 18 24 14 3 — 59

3-Point Goals–MHS 1 (Johnson), SEP 6 (Ruddy 3, Twohey 2, Smith). Team Fouls–MHS 16, SEP 21. Fouled Out–Bowie.