LE GRAND – East Marshall and Gladbrook-Reinbeck sported new faces in their starting lineups for entirely different reasons.

The Mustangs shook up their starting five with a play-in at Thursday night’s practice, while illness and injury offset the Rebel’s top quintet.

Having the advantage of going to its familiar faces off the bench, the East Marshall girls basketball team feasted on high-percentage shots inside for a 52-41 victory over the shorthanded Rebels Friday in North Iowa Cedar League West Division action.

Taylor Fricke poured in a game-high 21 points, Ashley Allen had 12 and Meriel Leavy added 10 off the bench as the Mustangs (4-7, 3-4) opened a 34-21 halftime advantage by outscoring the Rebels 17-9 in the second.

“We thought we had a definite size advantage, we’ve definitely been in a real lull and last night at practice we kind of shook things up a bit and basically we’re having play-ins to win a starting spot,” Mustangs coach Missy Pieters said. “We play, we record all their stats and they get points for scoring, rebounding, making good passes and being in the right spot. It’s kind of like wrestling with a wrestle-off, we’re going to have a playoff to get starting lineups.”

“That’s why our starting lineup tonight was a little unorthodox but those were the five people that had scored the most points last night in practice and I really think it sparked us because it made some of the kids that normally start or just play, come off the bench and have a lot more tenacity tonight on the defensive side.”

East Marshall used a three-guard lineup at tip-off including freshman Emily Terrones, while Gladbrook-Reinbeck played without leading scorer Amber Berendes and fellow starter Kyleah Dugan due to illness. One of the Rebels’ top subs, Megan Oelschlager, was out with a concussion.

The undermanned Rebels hung within 20-17 midway through the second quarter on an inside basket from Lauren Husmann but Fricke responded with a corner 3 and a spin move inside to build the lead back to eight. East Marshall closed the half on a 14-4 surge with a well-executed play leaving Ashley Allen wide open for a layup in the closing seconds to give the Mustangs a 13-point cushion.

Allen scored six straight points in the third with back-to-back buckets building the lead to 40-24 before the Rebels closed back within 44-33 entering the fourth. Hanna Christopher banked in a 3 and Nicole Adair scored in transition to whittle the deficit to 47-39 with 3:44 remaining but the Rebels came no closer as the Mustangs depth advantage helped them keep their defensive intensity high throughout.

“We went with a different group tonight,” G-R coach Eric Crandall said. “It was a young group but we battled. They’re an excellent team and they executed their offense real well and got a lot of stuff inside against us. We just had a tough time matching up size wise with them and depth wise with them, but I’m proud of our girls for battling.”

Christopher paced the Rebels (4-5, 2-5) with 14 points, Adair added nine and Weber had eight, while Husmann had six.

Notebook

The Mustangs continue their five-game home stand against BCLUW on Tuesday, while the Rebels host South Hardin.