Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm High School’s Isaiah Miller (23) takes a shot after getting past Konner Aufenthie (23) of Marshall Friday at NUHS.

NEW ULM — Marshall forced 20 New Ulm turnovers and directly or indirectly scored 24 points off of them as the Tigers ran by the Eagles 83-50 Friday night in a Big South Conference boys’ basketball game at New Ulm High School.

Josh Baker paced the Tigers (1-0) with 15 points. Noah Peutz and Bryce Lance each contributed 14 points.

Reece Melby led the Eagles (0-2) with a game-high 20 points. Isaiah Miller added 13.

For the Eagles and head coach Matt Dennis, the turnovers have been an early season problem two games into the season.

“I call those turnovers the ‘pick six’s’,” Dennis said. “We are giving teams too many and that is an area that we have to address — an area that we have to get better at. But I thought that early in the game we did a good job of being very patient and we took care of the basketball. However late in the first half and early in the second half we got careless [with the ball].”

The Eagles, who play Tuesday at Watertown-Mayer, took their only lead of the game at the 14-minute mark when Reece Melby buried a 3.

But the Tigers outscored New Ulm 12-2 to take a 21-12 lead when Trey Steinbach scored off an Eagles’ turnover.

The Eagles came back to cut the lead to 21-18 on two Melby charity shots.

A 3 from Charlie Osborne and a Joshua Wenninger bucket cut the lead to 32-27 before Marshall outscored New Ulm 11-4 for a 43-31 halftime lead.

Six of the Tigers’ points in that span came off of New Ulm turnovers.

Marshall increased that lead to 50-38 and then took advantage of more New Ulm turnovers to build a 61-38 lead before a Wenninger basket stopped the bleeding.

New Ulm’s 17th and 18th turnovers of the game saw the Tigers in front 71-43.

“They are so athletic and so quick,” Dennis said. “Credit Marshall. Once you get down it is tougher — it creates a lot more problems, especially against an athletic team.

“We are going to develop our team over time. I see some good things out of our shooters. We are a work in progress. I am proud of my boys — I think that we battled tonight.”