The Bobcat senior didn’t disappoint, draining a long two-point jumper with 50 seconds left to eventually hoist MHS to a 50-48 victory over Waterloo East at the Roundhouse on Friday night.

Brooks finished with 20 points as Marshalltown avenged a 55-42 loss on Jan. 20 at the East gym and improved to 9-11 on the season.

“We had a timeout before that and our coaches were like, ‘We’re running this play where Tre will get the ball, just clear out and let him go to work,'” Brooks said. “That just gives me the fuel to let me go.”

Moments earlier, the Bobcats had run a similar play that left Kyle Smith open for his sixth 3-pointer of the night, so there was no extra help available for the lone East defender who could only get a hand up as Tre drilled the eventual game-winner.

“That’s what you’ve got to do sometimes is step up and make big plays,” MHS head coach Michael Appel said.

On the other end of the floor, Marshalltown had to stop East on three separate occasions when the Bobcats couldn’t come up with the loose ball on East misses.

“You never know which way that can go, what can come after,” Brooks said. “So that makes us a little nervous.”

Fortunately for MHS, East’s third chance to tie or take the lead wasn’t better than their first two looks, and the Bobcats celebrated the dramatic victory as the horn sounded.

Smith also scored 20 points for the Bobcats on Friday. As 4A’s leader in 3-pointers made with 67 coming into Friday’s game, he finished 6-of-12 from 3-point range and created some major headaches for East defenders.

East was not helped by a 1-of-12 performance from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter that left the door wide open for a hungry Bobcat team.

“We knew we could win this game from the get go,” Smith said. “We didn’t play well down there at all but we knew we’d get the job done if we could just stick to defense and get rebounds — which we could’ve done a better job at tonight, but we got it done.”

Ke’Andre Owens was a tough defensive assignment in the paint as the East big scored eight of his 14 points in the second half.

“They’re very athletic, very big,” Appel said. “It’s hard, the offensive rebounds were really tough for us tonight, they had a lot of second and third chances at it. Our guys stuck with it, we kept playing hard and didn’t let that discourage us.”

After a few weeks of postponements, makeups and otherwise busy grinds in the Alliance, the Bobcats get a week of preparation for a regular-season finale against Southeast Polk on Feb. 16, three days before the start of substate on Monday the 19th.

“We’re super excited for that,” Smith said. “We know they’ll be tough but it’ll prepare us for the postseason.”

Marshalltown 50, Waterloo East 48

WATERLOO EAST (8-11, 4-4) — Ke’Andre Owens 7 0-1 14, Da’Jon Sharkey 0 0-0 0, Da’Shaundis Moore 3 0-0 6, Landen Sewell 5 0-2 14, Maceo Hicks 0 0-4 0, Davarrion Clark 2 1-5 5, Quenden Hart 0 0-0 0, Ahdan Muhammad 4 1-1 9. TOTALS 21 2-13 48.

MARSHALLTOWN (9-11, 4-4) — Carter Giannetto 0 0-0 0, Treshaun Brooks 9 1-5 20, Kyle Smith 7 0-0 20, Cory Smith 2 0-0 5, Rogelio Ceren 2 0-0 5, Jacob Thiessen 0 0-0 0, Jacob Hayes 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 20 2-5 50.

W’LOO EAST 17 11 11 9 — 48

MHS 12 17 7 14 — 50

3-Point Goals–Waterloo East 4 (Sewell 4), MHS 8 (K. Smith 6, C. Smith, Ceren). Team Fouls–Waterloo East 9, MHS 11. Fouled Out–none.