SHERBURNE – The shut down man-to-man defense in the final eight minutes of play allowed the Marauders of Sherburne-Earlville to pull away from their opponent Hamilton for the 54-40 win Thursday night.

After three quarters of action between the two teams, S-E held a slim three point lead (41-38) but the Marauders went to their best defensive scheme and limited the Emerald Knights to a single basket in the stanza.

Offensively, Sherburne-Earlville put 13 up on the scoreboard to win by double figures.

The Marauders opened up the contest with a 16-7 first quarter lead with 14 of their points coming after four minutes had ticked off the clock. To close out the first, S-E’s Kaitlyn Furner knocked down back-to-back 3-point baskets – including one right before the buzzer – to score six of her eight points tallied during the stretch.

Furner ended the night with 16 points to lead all scorers in the game.

The second and third quarters saw Hamilton chip away at Sherburne-Earlville’s nine point lead but outscoring the home team 21-16 and 10-9, closing the deficit down the three points heading into the fourth.

During the middle 16 minutes of play, the Emerald Knights dialed in from long-distance, draining all six of the 3-point buckets made in the game.

Beth Belanger and Kyleigh Pearson both made two in the second while teammate Emma Basher knocked down two in the third quarter. Belanger and Basher each finished the game with eight points. Person, along with colleague Ashley LaRuffa scored a team-high 10 points each.