The Marion girls' basketball team played polished Hesston Swathers team Monday in the first round of the Trojan Classic in Hillsboro. If it was not evident on the first possession that the teams were mismatched, it was reflected in the final score: 78-32.
Lauren Raleigh scored Hesston's first points of the game with an offensive rebound at 7:45 of the first quarter, and the Swathers scored on nearly every possession afterward. Grace Easter made it 4-0 and finished with 19 points.
Only 20 seconds later, Julia Carlton scored the first two out of the 17 points she tallied on the night.
It was 12-0 before the Warriors made a shot and Marion trailed 34-10 after the first quarter.
Down by 24, the Warriors played Hesston to a standstill in the second quarter. Each team scored 11 in the second frame, and Hesston took a 45-21 lead into halftime.
Hesston made substitutions to start the second half, and the Swathers outscored the Warriors 33-11 the rest of the way.
Marion made over 42 percent of its shots in the first half. Julia Zeiner came off the bench with seven points to lead the team in scoring.
The Warriors will play Sunrise Academy on Thursday. The winner of that game will advance to the fifth-place game at 11:30 a.m. Jan. 20. The seventh-place game is scheduled for the same time at the Hillsboro Middle School gym.
