The Marshalltown girls’ basketball team made a 23-point turnaround from the first time it faced Ames, but that still wasn’t enough to get the Bobcats a win on Tuesday night.

The Little Cyclones forced Marshalltown into 37 turnovers and left the Roundhouse with their ninth-straight win in the Iowa Alliance Conference series, scoring a 38-25 victory.

Ames (9-8, 7-0) secured the outright conference title with a full-court trapping press that pestered the Bobcats into their sixth game of scoring fewer than 30 points this season.

Marshalltown (10-8, 4-4) tried to lean on its third-ranked defense, but the shorthanded Bobcats struggled with foul trouble and the Little Cyclones made just enough 3-pointers to eventually pull away for the league win.

Going into battle without guards Amairra Johnson or Morgan Hilderbrand, the Bobcats cashed in just one 3-pointer and couldn’t take care of the ball enough to be effective offensively. Marshalltown’s leading scorer Frankie Long was held without a field goal before fouling out in the fourth quarter of the loss.

“I think our challenge is recognizing the difference between aggressiveness and recklessness,” said MHS head coach Brian Murphy, “and I think we too often veer into recklessness. It’s like we feed on getting a couple blocks, and suddenly everyone’s going for every block. When that adrenaline’s going, you’ve gotta get yourself recalibrated.”

The Bobcats blocked 16 shots in all against a shorter Ames squad, but the Little Cyclones also drew 17 fouls for their efforts. Both Long and senior guard Kinsley Bowie fouled out of the contest, cutting into an already shallow bench for the home team.

“Honestly the girls have embraced the challenge the last two games,” Murphy said of his banged-up roster. “This is the second straight game where in a loss, I feel like it’s hard to say a lot of negative things in the locker room. … They’re gritty, digging deep and doing what we’ve gotta do.”

Bowie finished with a team-leading nine points for the Bobcats, who got uncontested layups when they managed to break the full-court pressure. Kendall Brummel got five points, nine rebounds and a blocked shot, while Millie Heitmann had five points, four boards and seven blocked shots.

Long, Jorja Janssen and Mallory Meyeraan added two points apiece, which Long contributing seven rebounds and four blocked shots as well. Marshalltown’s leading scorer, Long attempted just one field goal as getting her the ball proved to be the toughest part.

“We knew we had the ability to get to the rim, we just didn’t get ourselves into a half-court offense consistently enough to actually make them pay,” said Murphy. “You could see in the fourth quarter what it could have been, but it took us three quarters to finally get there.”

Ames only led 13-10 at halftime after the two teams combined to commit 33 turnovers, but the Little Cyclones started to pull away in the third quarter.

Natalya Singh and Lyza Britten had nine points apiece to lead Ames, while Parker Bivins added seven points and Victoria Williams had six.

Marshalltown is back at home on Friday night with a game against Ottumwa (14-2), which has won 14 games in a row since starting the season 0-2.

Ames 38, Marshalltown 25

AMES (9-8, 7-0) — Sophia Hatcher 1 0-0 3, Natalya Deardorff 1 2-4 4, Parker Bivins 3 0-2 7, Victoria Williams 2 2-2 6, Natalya Singh 3 2-4 9, Lyza Britten 4 0-0 9, Cassidy Wollner 0 0-0 0, Araya Anderson 0 0-0 0, Kiley Sodahl 0 0-0 0, Meredith Frandsen 0 0-0 0, Elizabeth Lemer 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 14 6-12 38.

MARSHALLTOWN (10-8, 4-4) — Kendall Brummel 2 0-0 5, Kinsley Bowie 3 3-6 9, Millie Heitmann 2 1-3 5, Jorja Janssen 1 0-0 2, Frankie Long 0 2-2 2, Mallory Meyeraan 0 2-2 2, Keira Halsted 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 8 8-13 25.

AMES 5 8 14 11 — 38

MHS 4 6 6 9 — 25

3-Point Goals–Ames 4 (Britten, Hatcher, Bivins, Singh), MHS 1 (Brummel). Team Fouls–Ames 17, MHS 18. Fouled Out–Long, Bowie.