Tigers drop short-handed Spartans

The Marshalltown Community College women's basketball team shot just 14.3 percent from the floor in the first half, Southwestern's active roster of just six players was whistled for a total of 27 fouls, and three technical fouls were distributed.

When the final buzzer sounded and Longley returned from a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind, his Tigers were triumphant, 68-54.

Three Southwestern players fouled out before the end of Wednesday's Iowa Community College Athletic Conference contest, leaving the visiting Spartans (2-20, 1-11) with only three active players for the final three minutes of play.

Southwestern managed to stave off MCC for more than three minutes while playing with just four players during the fourth quarter, but a brief 3-point barrage managed to propel the Tigers (13-9, 4-7) to its decisive surge.

Marshalltown trailed by one, 52-51, when Southwestern's leading scorer Brooklyn Hadl went to the bench with 2:59 remaining, leaving only three Spartans in the game for the home stretch.

MCC outscored Southwestern 17-2 the rest of the way to bring an end to a bizarre journey through the fifth dimension.

"I thought I was in the Twilight Zone," Longley said after a game that finished with just eight players on the court.

Southwestern endured foul trouble in the first half but couldn't avoid more in the second half. The first of three Spartans to foul out went to the bench with 1.1 seconds left in the third quarter, at which time the team led 42-38.

MCC trailed by as many as 11 — 40-29 — before an Abigail Gradwell-driven scoring surge brought the Tigers back into focus. Gradwell made a layup, her fifth 3-pointer of the season and another layup in transition to score a 7-0 spurt of her own, and Shenell Stewart added a pair of free throws to get Marshalltown back within two, 40-38.

Southwestern led 42-38 going into the final period and added to its lead with consecutive buckets by Hadl. Marshalltown's counterattack included back-to-back 3-pointers by Mia Sao-Martinez and a triple by Kimari Hall, giving the Tigers their first lead since the first quarter.

Southwestern lost a second player to fouls during that MCC surge, and a runout layup for Destiny Sao-Martinez made it 49-46 Tigers with 6:11 left.

Playing against Southwestern's box-and-none zone defense, MCC inexplicably settled for 3-point attempts despite a temporary 5-on-4 advantage. By the time the Tigers started attacking the basket, Southwestern had actually regained a 52-51 lead.

"They go down to four kids and they take the lead," Longley said. "We got lucky tonight. Credit to their kids and their coach, they did the best they could with what they had. It's no knock on them, but this game should not have been like that."

Hadl's fifth foul left three Spartans on the court, and the rest of the contest was no contest.

"I think it does (give us a boost), but at the same time it doesn't because of the manner in which it happened," Longley added. "We should have come out and had a different outcome in the sense that this game shouldn't have been like this. I did want this game to be a confidence-boost, but I don't think it was.

"A win is a win and I think we need to move forward understanding that, but we all know we just have to do the right things. We know the difference between right and wrong."

MCC committed just 15 turnovers but couldn't get the ball through the hoop, shooting 4-for-28 from the field in the first half and 22-for-74 for the game (29.7 percent). The Tigers were 7-for-33 from 3-point range (21.2 percent).

That's what made MCC's offensive passivity so perplexing, Longley said.

"Even before (Southwestern players fouled out), that was our goal," he said. "You need to get to the rim because we were more athletic than their team and we should have beaten them of the dribble, but instead we settled and settled and settled.

"I love these kids, I love this group and we have a great relationship so they know this is going to show up in the paper, but they're going to take it because they know they're better than that."

Kenijae Cherry and Stewart both had double-doubles to lead MCC to victory. Cherry had a career-high 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Stewart had 15 points and 12 boards. Kimari Hall added 14 points, and Mia Sao-Martinez finished with 13 points. Gradwell got all of her seven points in a brief surge in the third, and Destiny Sao-Martinez chipped in with four points before fouling out on a technical foul with 2:08 left in the game.

Both benches were tagged with technical fouls as well.

"I think we'll get it back on the right track, I just would like it to be sooner than later," Longley said. "Again, a win is a win, sometimes you gotta get ugly ones and this wasn't pretty tonight. I don't like yelling at officials, but you do that sometimes to get your team going. Our energy was great after I got a technical and that's crazy, because why does it have to be me doing this to get the team going?"

Hadl finished with a double-double of 20 points and 15 rebounds to lead Southwestern, while Sharmaine Tapling tallied 18 points and seven assists as the only player to play all 40 minutes.

Having won two of three, MCC heads into the weekend with a road trip against Iowa Western on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Council Bluffs.

For more coverage of MCC Athletics, click here: https://www.timesrepublican.com/sports/local-sports/2025/01/tigers-drop-short-handed-spartans/