Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Maddie Backer drives to the basket during a Big South Conference girls basketball game against Marshall Tuesday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — New Ulm nearly came back from an 18-point deficit but fell just short of earning its first win of the season, falling to Marshall 83-79 in a Big South Conference girls basketball game on Tuesday.

The Tigers were up 83-65 in the second half, but the Eagles pushed the lead down to 4 by the time the buzzer sounded, just running out of time for the comeback.

“I think we were playing really good defense,” New Ulm head coach Julie Rogers said. “We were getting after loose balls and putting some pressure on. That’s our style of play, is to pressure the ball and take it away form you. A couple more of these layups in the first half or a layup in the second half goes in. We missed six free throws tonight and lost by four. I think we’re right there.”

Offensive rebounds and second-chance points were a key part of the comeback attempt, as were turnovers and 3-point shooting.

“In the end, we gave up too many offensive rebounds,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said. “Give New Ulm credit, they kept battling. We gave up too many offensive rebounds and too many easy baskets inside. They had some kids who hit some outside shots to kind of keep it close, we had it to 18 there with four minutes to go. At that point we need to find a way to put them away, and we just weren’t able to put them away.”

Brooklyn Lewis led the Eagles with 21 points, while Morgan Hulke had 16 points with four 3-pointers and five rebounds. Maddie Backer had 14 points, while Ramsey Hopp had 12 points and four rebounds.

Reese Drake led Marshall with 23 points, including 10 made free-throws, while Paige Gillingham hit five 3-pointers and totaled 19 points. Taleigh Bigler and Avery Schneekloth each added 13 points for the Tigers.

Rebounding was a major issue for both teams, with Marshall hauling in more boards in the first half and New Ulm gaining more of an advantage in the second half.

“We talked about everybody rebounding,” Rogers said. “Not just the people underneath, but the guards out on top need to box out as well so the offensive girl doesn’t come down and get an offensive rebound when we’re on defense. We need rebounding from everybody. We’ll keep working on it.”

Betsy Joyce and Maggie Joyce were both key in getting rebounds for New Ulm in the second half, as they both finished with eight.

Westby also highlighted preventing offensive rebounds, which was one way that New Ulm was able to keep in the game in the second half.”

“We just didn’t do a very good job of getting a body on people and getting them away from the basket,” he said. “All we did was turn and look for the ball. You can’t do that. You need to make some contact first and then you can release and find it. But we didn’t do enough of that tonight. But like I said, New Ulm kept battling and they didn’t quit, so credit to them.”

Marshall’s full-court trap defense pestered the Eagles all game, exasperating their turnovers and leading to transition opportunities for the Tigers. On the other side of the court, Marshall’s passing got around New Ulm’s trap for much of the first half, leading to a 26-14 lead by the Tigers after a 3-pointer by Gillingham.

“That’s kind of what we do generally,” Westby said of the Tigers success on defense. “They knew we were going to do it, but yet we were still able to have some success, which I think says a lot about our kids.”

Turnovers have been a common issue for the Eagles as they search for their first win of the season.

“We’ve had turnovers in the 20s in both of our first two games,” Rogers said. “We’ll see what this one comes back now, but it’s definitely something we need to work on and that we’ve been talking about in practice and halftime and postgame and everything. You can’t turn the ball over that many times unless we’re shooting lights out. We need to get a shot down the court every time, or at least two out of the three times down the court, and that’s not happening for us right now. When it does, you’ll see us put a lot of points on the board. We put 79 points on the board tonight and turned the ball over a lot. Once we get a lot better handle on pressure and making some good passes, I think you’ll see our scoring go up.”

Gillingham hit another 3-pointer to stop a short 6-0 run by the Eagles and put the lead at 29-21, but New Ulm continued to battle and cut the lead to 29-27 on a 3-pointer by Hopp and a free-throw by Betsy Joyce. Marshall went on a 8-2 run, 4 of which were scored by Bigler, to extend the lead out to 37-29. Hulke hit a 3-pointer before halftime to put the score at 40-32.

Gillingham hit her fifth 3-pointer to open the second half, but New Ulm responded with a 3 by Hopp. Marshall went on a 6-0 run to bring the lead to 49-37, and New Ulm fought back to bring it to 51-44. Avery Fahl hit two consecutive 3-pointers to begin an 11-5 run for Marshall, then the teams traded buckets for several possessions. Marshall eventually built its 83-65 lead after a transition layup by Schneekloth before New Ulm kicked into gear. Backer started it off with a midrange jumper, followed by a putback by Maggie Joyce. Backer hit a driving layup to cut the lead to 83-71 before knocking down three of four free throws to cut the lead to 10 with 1:33 to play in the game. New Ulm called a timeout, then a free throw by New Ulm’s Leah Brunstad was followed by a tough baseline floater by Backer to cut the lead to 83-77. New Ulm took a timeout with 35 seconds left, and Lewis got a steal that led to a basket by Hopp, followed immediately by another Marshall turnover. However, New Ulm missed the next shot and Marshall took enough time off the clock to put the game away as the Eagles comeback fell short.

Though the Eagles have started the season with three consecutive losses, Rogers believes the pieces are still there to have a strong contender for the rest of the season.

“Everybody’s just got to hang with us,” she said. “Keep the faith kind of thing. We’re getting better every single day, every single practice. I’ve said it before that this is a journey, and we’re on the road and we’re working on things and getting better every single day. We need to find that first win though. We’re kind of hungry for that right now.”

New Ulm will get its next opportunity for that Friday at Jackson County Central.