Eight minutes of game time later they had a mountain to climb — one they couldn’t scale before the final whistle.

Urbandale used a 17-4 third quarter to get a 48-34 victory over the Bobcats Friday night, handing Marshalltown its first loss of the season in the process.

The Bobcats were ready for a physical matchup on short rest after beating Newton on Thursday, but early and often the physicality and versatility in Urbandale’s defense made a big impact on proceedings. Turnovers happened often when the Bobcats were trying to make skip passes, with the J-Hawk defenders reading passing lanes and anticipating the play. While it didn’t often lead to fast-break points, it gave the J-Hawks more offensive chances and momentum far too often.

Marshalltown still did an okay job of handling Urbandale’s junk defenses, head coach Michael Appel said.

T-R PHOTO BY NOAH ROHLFING - Marshalltown junior forward Dalen Huston (34) glides toward a layup in front of Urbandale’s Grant Uecker (24) during the second half of Friday’s basketball game at the Roundhouse.

“We struggled to put the ball in the hole tonight, that’s as simple as I can put it,” Appel said. “I thought our defense played great tonight.

“They junked it up with some zones and hard trapping us to get us out of our offense. We weren’t able to run many of our offensive sets tonight obviously, so we had a lot of zone and we had a lot of open threes from a lot of good shooters. We want those guys shooting those shots every single time when they’re open and if they’re not falling, they’re not falling.”

Only Drake Kapayou hit a shot from 3-point range, burying three on his way to being the Bobcats’ leading scorer at nine points. No Marshalltown player reached double figures, a sign of the big troubles the team had getting anything to fall. Treshaun Brooks scored six and Dalen Huston had five.

Prince Jallah made an impact in the first half off the bench with seven big points as the Bobcats kept the game close, leading for much of the second quarter before a late Urbandale run.

Leading the way for Urbandale was big man Brevin Phillips with a game-high 15, hitting a three and making tough shots over Marshalltown’s post players.

Once the third quarter hit, nothing went right for the Bobcats. Turnovers led to more Urbandale possessions, the J-Hawks converted second-chance opportunities and open Marshalltown shots were clanging off the rim. Heading into the fourth quarter, they were looking for a miracle.

For a brief moment it looked possible — using a press to stunt the rhythm of the J-Hawk offense, the Bobcats got within 44-34 after a Kapayou three. Multiple shots were missed afterwards, and the Bobcats couldn’t ever get the deficit to single digits. Urbandale saw out the rest of the game to improve to 1-1 on the season.

Despite the defeat, Appel was very positive about the team’s defense through the first week of games and was positive about the team’s direction.

“Our goal is to keep teams at 12 or under [points per quarter] and we’ve done that all three games now,” Appel said. “I’ve felt like we’ve missed probably 40 open threes and our good shooters are shooting.”

Marshalltown’s next game is a home matchup with Des Moines North Tuesday at 7:45 p.m.

Urbandale 48, Marshalltown 34

URBANDALE (1-1) — Brice Lange 0 7-1 7, Cooper Hardersen 3 2-2 9, Jack Craig 2 2-2 6, Grant Uecker 2 4-6 9, Brevin Phillips 7 0-1 15, Jonathan Walker 0 0-0 0, Kevin Dillon 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 15 15-19 48.

MARSHALLTOWN (2-1) — Carter Giannetto 0 0-0 0, Treshaun Brooks 3 4-4 10, Drake Kapayou 3 0-0 9, Jaxson Eisenbarth 1 1-2 3, Dalen Huston 1 3-4 5, Brayden Weatherly 0 0-0 0, Prince Jallah 3 1-4 7, Cory Smith 0 0-0 0, Rogelio Ceren 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 11 9-14 34.

URBANDALE 11 14 17 6 — 48

MHS 11 10 4 9 — 34

3-Point Goals–Urbandale 3 (Hardersen, Uecker, Phillips), MHS 3 (Kapayou 3). Total Fouls–Urbandale 19, MHS 18. Fouled Out–none.