Full-court defensive pressure and a 21-point second half by Marissa Robbins propelled Stansbury past Tooele Tuesday night in the first Region 6 game for both teams.

Tooele led 17-14 at intermission, the game was tied 27-27 after three quarters and Stansbury led 32-31 with 4:25 left in the game. From that point on Tooele could manage only six points while the Stallions scored 14 to close out their rivals on the Buffs’ court 46-37.

“Marissa was much more aggressive in the second half and we were able to get to the foul line and hit our foul shots,” said Stansbury coach Kenzie Newton. “Mattie Snow was guarding Marissa and she (Snow) had three fouls going into the second half so we put Marissa down low hoping to get Snow in foul trouble.”

Tooele went up 19-14 to start the third quarter on a bucket by Rylee Mulitalo, but then Robbins made two quick inside baskets to slice the Tooele lead to 19-18.

Tooele’s Becca Smaellie turned up the defense to make life rough inside for Robbins and then Tooele surged back out to a five-point advantage with baskets from Smaellie and Marina Jaramillo to lead 23-18 with 4:52 left in the third quarter. Stansbury scored the next six points with a short jumper from Loretta Beaty and two more baskets by Robbins and the score was even at 27 after three quarters.

The Stallions scored the first five points of the fourth quarter, but Tooele was not ready to throw in the towel, particularly Mulitalo. The junior made a nice inside move and scored with her left hand to slice Stansbury’s lead to 32-29 and later scored on another inside fake and a right-handed shot to make it 32-31 for Stansbury. The Tooele rally fell a bit short in the final minutes as the Stallions were able to score the next six points to ice the game. Robbins hit two foul shots and Erika Alvey drilled a 15-footer straight down the barrel followed by a Robbins’ runner to give the Stallions their biggest lead at 38-31 with only 1:38 remaining.

Stansbury then hit seven-of-eight foul shots in the final minute to win by nine.

Robbins was held to six points in the first half before her monster second half of 21 for a game-high 27.

“We were a little disappointed because our goal was to hold her (Robbins) at her average of 18 points. But the biggest factor in the game was we committed too many turnovers,” said Tooele coach Shirley McCloy.

Newton agrees that forcing Tooele turnovers was a big key to the victory.

“Our press was pretty effective. Marissa got her 27 points but she also had eight steals in the game. Our guards also did a good job in the game defending. We kept rotating the guards in and out to keep them fresh,” Newton said.

“I thought Tooele played extremely hard as well. Rylee Mulitalo had a great game,” Newton said. Mulitalo led Tooele in scoring with 16.

McCloy was pleased with the way her team competed. “We’re competitive again and that makes me very happy. I told the girls after the game that I’ll never question their heart and as a team we continue to improve.” she said.

“Unlike in previous years a team had to come in here with their crowd and really play hard to get away with a victory. I’m so proud the way our team has improved since the first of the year,” McCloy said.

Newton is pleased with the support her team has received from fans this year.

“It was an exciting game with a rivalry atmosphere and it’s good for us to get a region win to start out. It wasn’t easy, we really had to work hard. The rivalry will be fun and continue to grow,” Newton said.

No other Stansbury player scored more than four points in the game.

Smaellie had nine points for Tooele.

The Stansbury girls play at Olympus on Friday with a 5:15 p.m. tip-off prior to the Stansbury boys’ game against the Titans.

Tooele will play at East next Tuesday with 5:15 p.m. tip-off prior to the boys’ game versus the Leopards.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com