ABOUT LAST NIGHT……DELANO V MARSHALL
#9AAA Delano won the battle of Tigers with a 81-77 victory over #2AAA Marshall. It was the first time this year when I was charting that the losing team had a pp100 over 100.
Delano was hot from the start. Marshall was coming off a victory Monday night when they hit a century on Worthington. In fact they had over 70 points in the first half that night. The visiting Tigers also had a two and a half hour bus trip to contend with.
Delano won the tip and connected on a string right at the start on possessions 1-2-3, and then again with a four string score starting on possession nine. When the dust had settled Delano led 21-7. That second string had three 3s in the mix bringing up a rain maker theme…Delano connected on 14/28 for the night…for a sizzling 50% behind the arc. Marshall wasn’t shabby either hitting for 11/29. Delano’s Addie Iverson had five 3s on the night, Abbie Pietila four.
Another night…another injury. Delano’s Cassie Wegman went down with what looked like an injury to her right knee at the 4:44 mark of the first half and the hosts nursing a 28-20 lead, after a Marshall 13-7 push. Wegman did not return. She was replaced by Kali Schultz who delivered eight points off the bench with perfection on 3s (2/2) and 2s (1/1). At half it was Delano up 38-31. Mashall did not have a string for their name in the half.
Marshall quickly made up for lost time regarding strings starting on their second possession in the second half and going to possession five. The visiting Tigers tied it up at 41. The host Tigers scored twice on the next possession to stretch their lead back to 45-41. They retained possession after a score and a foul away from the ball. Both teams traded strings with Delano scoring four, and Marshall scoring five eventually to tie it up at 60 with 8:30 left. Then the visitors hit a wall. Delano scored ten unanswered points. With 1:25 left Marshall sliced into that deficit to 77-71. But the next two Marshall possessions ended on a turnover when attempting to penetrate the lane, and then missed a pair of free throws on the next. Reese Drake hit a deep 3 at the buzzer for the final margin.
| Team | Pt | PP100 | OR/DR | FTM/a | 2M/A | 3M/A | TO/TOTO |
| Delano | 81 | 112.5 | 9/27 | 11/14 | 14/30 | 14/28 | 18/18.83 |
| Marshall | 77 | 106.9 | 8/20 | 18/22 | 13/27 | 11/29 | 13/23.31 |
Addie Iverson and Abbie Pietila joined the 31 Club with 35 and 34 scores for Delano. This is the second time this year both made the Club. I opened with Delano at Centennial at the start of the season. Then Pietila made the 41 Club. Iverson notched 32 then. The Tigers increased their pp100 23.3 up from 89.2 in the win over the Cougars.
Taleigha Bigler of Marshall joined the 41 Club right on the nose. She was joined by Reese Drake with 37. Bigler had a 126.7 pp100, Drake was at 84.6. Avery Schneekloth had a 175.0 pp100, the best pp100 of any player with more than one possession. Both Bigler and Pietila battled all night.
So where are these teams headed? Marshall finished second in the state last season and returns most of their crew. Their section (2) is not as filled with land mines as Delano’s section 6. Jordan has moved back up and will be the main challenge it is expected. In section 6 #1 Benilde-St. Margaret’s and #3 Orono live there along with unbeaten Richfield (5-0) and Holy Angels. Every class has a killer-diller section. That is 6AAA no doubt.
Delano is now 6-3 on the year, Marshall 5-2.