AMES — The shorthanded Marshalltown girls’ basketball team struggled to keep possession in a 57-22 loss to Ames in Thursday’s Iowa Alliance Conference showdown.

The Little Cyclones (5-5, 4-0) forced the Bobcats into 32 turnovers as Marshalltown was held to single-digit scoring in all four periods of their eighth-straight loss in the series.

MHS (7-3, 2-2) was playing without senior starters Kinsley Bowie and Jorja Janssen, making it even more challenging for the Bobcats to try to unseat the perennial conference frontrunner. Both players were out with an illness.

“Definitely not the game you want to go into shorthanded,” said MHS head coach Brian Murphy. “Ames’s full-court pressure and being shorthanded proved to be a very challenging combination. Even when we were able to break the press, I thought fatigue played a significant role in a lot of our decision-making.”

Ames got out to a 19-5 lead after the first quarter and continued to pull away from there.

Lyza Britten and Victoria Williams scored 10 points apiece to lead the Little Cyclones, and Natalya Deardorff pitched in with eight points.

Millie Heitmann led the Bobcats with six points to go along with six rebounds and three blocked shots. Amairra Johnson finished with five points, and Frankie Long was limited to three points but had 14 rebounds and eight blocked shots.

Kendall Brummel and Morgan Hilderbrand both made a 3-pointer, and Keira Halsted added a jumper for the Bobcats.

“I was proud of the way we had a number of girls stepping into a challenging situation with both unique lineup combinations that haven’t played much together as well as girls having to fill roles that they haven’t really been asked to all season,” Murphy said.

MHS has three games next week starting with Monday’s home contest against Cedar Rapids Jefferson.

Ames 57, Marshalltown 22

MARSHALLTOWN (7-3, 2-2) — Amairra Johnson 1 3-6 5, Kendall Brummel 1 0-0 3, Morgan Hilderbrand 1 0-0 3, Millie Heitmann 2 2-4 6, Frankie Long 1 1-5 3, Sophie Boone 0 0-0 0, Mallory Meyeraan 0 0-0 0, Keira Halsted 1 0-0 2, Melanie Fernandez 0 0-0 0, Avery Buschbom 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 7 6-15 22.

AMES (5-5, 4-0) — Lyza Britten 4 2-2 10, Sophia Hatcher 0 0-0 0, Natalya Deardorff 2 4-7 8, Kiley Sodahl 1 1-3 3, Victoria Williams 3 4-4 11, Payton Steines 1 0-0 2, Kiersten Hinson 1 0-0 3, Parker Bivins 2 0-0 6, Araya Anderson 0 2-2 2, Kiley Sodahl 1 1-3 3, Meredith Frandsen 0 0-0 0, Elizabeth Lemer 2 1-2 6, Natalya Singh 2 0-0 4, Elizabeth Lehmkuhl 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 18 14-20 57.

MHS 5 4 6 7 — 22

AMES 19 10 18 10 — 57

3-Point Goals–MHS 2 (Hilderbrand, Brummel), Ames 5 (Deardorff 2, Hinson, Williams, Lemer). Team Fouls–MHS 13, Ames 15. Fouled Out–Long.