The Trojans trounced East Marshall, 49-26 at South Tama County High School on Monday.

STC freshmen Scout Ridout and Dyan Keahna led the way with 16 and 12 points, respectively. It’s the second win of the season for a South Tama team that snapped a 46-game winless streak last month.

“I think that just made us realize that we can do so much more than what we thought we were capable of,” Ridout said.

Momentum built up for the hosts by the end of halftime, as STC used a 13-2 run to get out to a 23-13 halftime lead on the Mustangs.

An 11-0 run to start the second half provided even more distance as the Trojans’ pressure defense flustered an inexperienced Mustangs squad that head coach Sean Thurm said wasn’t quite ready to go for the first game back in 2025.

“We didn’t play well, flat out,” Thurm added. “We gotta shake the rust off a little bit. I think if we played them again in two weeks it’d be different.”

The Trojans created ample opportunities off their defense, speeding up East Marshall in the backcourt for easy buckets off steals and turnovers.

“We’re really trying to stress to them to defend with their feet and not with their hands,” STC head coach Dina Keahna said. “Once they catch on to that, they react a little bit better with their speed and they’ve just got to really buy into that to be successful.”

The 23-point win for the Trojans is the largest margin of victory for the girls team since a 69-35 win over Centerville on Feb. 13, 2019.

STC came out on the better end of a war of attrition on the hardwood — a total of 49 fouls were called between the two teams, resulting in 55 total free throws — STC made 16-of-30 at the line, including 4-of-10 for Ridout.

“Practicing free throws meant a lot for us tonight,” Ridout said, adding with a laugh, “I just want to say my free throw percentage does not look like that in practice.”

After two wins against North Iowa Cedar League teams this season, STC is back to the WaMaC grind hosting top-ranked (3A) Mount Vernon on Tuesday and heading to Solon on Friday in cross-divisional games. The Trojans were with three points of Vinton-Shellsburg in their final WaMaC game before break, a tough loss to end 2024.

“It really comes down to the girls believing,” Dina Keahna said. “I want the girls to feel the confidence to shoot and that’s one of our main goals right now since we’ve been lackluster with shooting. I want us to see those percentages go up to get us a little more confidence.”

South Tama 49, East Marshall 26

EAST MARSHALL (2-8) — Sydney Hull 2 2-6 6, Delaney Ryan 0 4-6 4, Mya Gould 1 2-2 5, Makayla Hala 1 3-4 5, Ashtyn Wheater 1 0-0 2, Deshawna Green 0 0-4 0, Alivia Neuroth 1 2-3 4, Kiela Wolf 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 6 13-25 26.

SOUTH TAMA (2-7) — Olivia Hala 3 2-7 8, Cahysia Kapayou 2 0-0 4, Janette Cervantes 0 0-2 0, Rylee Ridout 2 1-2 5, Dyan Keahna 3 5-5 12, Aubrey Dolezal 0 0-0 0, Scout Ridout 6 4-10 16, Azalee Morgan 0 0-0 0, Madison Hitchcock 0 2-2 2, Stella Zmolek 0 2-2 2, Paige Croskey 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 16 16-30 49.

E. MARSHALL 7 6 2 11 — 26

S. TAMA 10 13 11 15 — 49

3-Point Goals–EM 1 (Gould), STC 1 (Keahna). Team Fouls–EM 24, STC 25. Fouled Out–Ryan, Neuroth, Wheater.