The night was dedicated to the Monarch senior quartet of Tori Finley, Kurstin Ebert, Megan Schwing and Kameryn Wells.

“I said before the season started, this class, if they’re not the best they’re on the edge in terms of their personality, their leadership, the kids they are,” John Marshall head coach Brock Melko said. “We are extremely blessed at this school to have them leading the way. I told them, especially early in the year, that in our good times and bad, they have led us. I told the girls before the game tonight, those other 15 girls on our roster should model themselves after those four on the court and off. They play as hard as they can, they’re coachable, they don’t complain. They’re great kids and they’re going to have great success in their lives.”

Throughout Monday’s action, it was Linsly senior Haylen Cook and John Marshall junior Rilee Storm leading the way for their respective squads.

Cook scored 24 points with nine rebounds and eight steals, while Storm totaled 26 points and eight rebounds for the victorious Monarchs.

John Marshall was supplemented by 16 points and four assists from Kaylee White, and six points and 10 rebounds from Kalyn Reese.

Abby White scored 12 points for Linsly, knocking down four 3-pointers.

John Marshall battened down the hatches on defense to extend a 15-6 lead through the first quarter, but Linsly hit their stride on offense in the second. After Kaylee White knocked down a shot behind the arc to make it a 18-6 game in the second, Linsly went on an 8-0 run to trim the lead to four.

The pendulum swung back in John Marshall’s favor, stretching things back out to a 10-point lead after a free throw by Paislee Babiczuk put the home team ahead 25-15 with 1:20 ’till halftime.

John Marshall led 28-16 at the break.

The third quarter began with Cook and Storm trading buckets in the early minutes, and the Cadets’ offense was once again able to put their foot on the accelerator with a 16-4 run to end the quarter. A Haylen Cook lay-in had the Cadets down just one, 37-36, with under a minute in the quarter, but a shot in-close by Reese at quarter’s end pushed the Monarch lead to three, 39-36, going into the fourth.

Cook scored 15 points in the third, all of them drives to the basket that yielded layups or free throws.

Linsly was stuck at 36 while John Marshall started the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run punctuated by a wing 3-pointer from Storm.

The Monarchs kept the lead around the 10-point mark for most of the quarter from there, until the final mark of 60-49.

“When we played well, it was because of our defense,” Melko said. “I talked about that before the game, at halftime, after the game- we were going to win this game with our defense. The times where we stretched our lead, that was the reason, and the times where they cut into our lead, that was the reason as well, we slacked off defensively.

“All-around, I’m really proud of our defensive effort as a team. It’s always good to get a win on senior night, honoring those four.”