By ELIOT SILL

Staff writer

Head coach Kelly Robson knew his team needed to match the opposition’s intensity or it would lose Tuesday.

After leading most of the way, Marion fell behind, 33-39, with a minute left in the third.

“Oh, it’s about to happen,” the third-year coach thought.

Instead of being put away, however, the Marion girls rattled off an 18-4 run over the next several minutes to gain a 51-43 advantage.

Canton-Galva put a final push together, scoring 4 consecutive to cut the lead in half, but a Marshelle Mermis pass while falling down found a cutting Kourtney Hansen for a dagger layup.

The Warriors went on to win, 56-49.

Senior Julia Hall led the Warriors with 14 points but had plenty of support from the freshman Hansen, who had 12.

Along with Hansen’s sister, junior Kirsten Hansen, Bailey Robson, and Erika Hess, the Warriors had five players score at least 8 points.

“We were able to, especially as they were trying to press us in the full-court, throw over the top of their press and get some easy layup kind of looks,” Coach Robson said.

Coach Robson was impressed with how his team handled Canton-Galva’s third-quarter push.

“Some teams would just kinda go, ‘Eh, it’s just not our night,’” he said. “This team came back nicely.”

Marion was able to gain an advantage in fouls, drawing several on Canton-Galva via aggressive drives to the basket.

“We’re just so passive,” he said. “I’m trying to get us to go a little bit harder for that kind of thing. So that was good to see.”