Marietta’s Alyssa Baker gets a shot up during Thursday’s game against Warren in Vincent. Marietta won, 59-27. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

VINCENT — A lot of shots weren’t falling early on for the Marietta Tigers in a Twin State League showdown with their arch rival Warren Warriors in Vincent Thursday night but thanks to a relentless, opportunistic defense the Tigers never missed a beat.

The Tigers pressured Warren into 11 first quarter turnovers as they built a 12-0 lead and never looked back as they rolled to a 59-27 win.

Marietta forced Warren into 30 turnovers in the game as they remained undefeated (4-0) on the season while notching their second TSL win in as many tries.

“We always want to put our hard hats on for defense and I thought we did that tonight,” said Tiger head coach Ryan McClain. “These kids all love one another and they want to play for each other and when you are doing that good things are going to happen.”

Both teams struggled to put the ball in the hoop early on but the Tigers got on the board when junior Hayleigh Chidester drove to the bucket and finished with a scoop shot.

Warren’s Mackenzie James-McGuire (44) drives with the ball as Marietta’s Hayleigh Chidester (3) defends during Thursday’s game in Vincent. Marietta won, 59-27. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

The Tigers missed several wide open looks at the basket both from long range and under the basket early on before they got a spark from freshman Kendall VanderWal.

VanderWal drilled three-pointers on consecutive MHS possessions and then added a free throw for good measure to give the Tigers a 9-0 lead.

Senior Leigha Lauer finished the quarter by connecting on a three-pointer of her own.

Lauer opened the second quarter they way she finished the first with a three-pointer before Warren finally got on the board on a two-pointer by senior Mackenzie James-McGuire.

Chidester transferred to Marietta this year after playing her first two years of high school ball at Warren and she made her old team pay by scoring back-to-back field goals to extend the lead to 17.

Marietta extended their run to 10-0 on a field goal and a free throw by Lauer followed by a three-pointer by senior Jacey McKnight.

Warren’s Rylee Arnold and Lauer traded buckets in the final minute of the half to send the Tigers to the locker room with a commanding 27-4 lead.

The Tigers connected on just 10-of-26 field goal attempts in the first half and were even worse at the free throw line as they made just two of 10.

After turning the ball over 20 times and connecting on just 2-of-16 field goal attempts in the first half the Warriors played much better in the second half but they just couldn’t put much of a dent into the Tiger lead.

“I thought Warren did a nice job of making adjustments and coming out in the second half and giving us some fits,” said McClain. “I was impressed with what they did.”

McKnight had the hot hand in the third quarter as she knocked down a pair of triples as the Tigers shoved their lead 45-16 at the end of three quarters of play.

Lauer led a very balanced Tiger attack with 13 points while VanderWal and McKnight chipped in with 11 apiece.

Chidester also reached double-figures with 10 while senior Alyssa Baker added eight points to go along with five steals and four assists.

McKnight led the Tigers with six takeaways while Lauer pulled down a team high nine boards.

With the benefit of having so many weapons on the court McClain feels like a different girls could lead his team in scoring on any given night.

“This team in one and we are playing together so we could have a different scoring leader every night,” said McClain. “The cool thing is everyone wants to see everyone else score and they are just so unselfish it’s really nice to see.”

James-McGuire had a strong second half and finished with game-highs in both points with 15 and rebounds with 14.

The loss drops the Warriors record to 2-2 and an even 1-1 in league play with a week off before they host Parkersburg South next Thursday.

Marietta will travel to Steubenville on Monday looking to extend their season opening winning streak to five.

“It’s nice to get off to a good start like this but now we’ve got to be ready for a tough one Monday at Steubenville,” said McClain. “They are big, physical and they are going to get after us so we’ve got to be ready to go to work.”