NEW ULM - The New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds girls' basketball team may have made a State of the Conference address Tuesday night.
The Greyhounds took down the Tomahawk Conference-leading Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers 37-34 using a combination of ferocious defense, key shooting and pressure free throws.
Cathedral had lost its first contest on Dec. 8 at MVL, 62-48. But Greyhounds coach Mary Dengerud thinks she knows the difference between that game and this one.
"Part of it is that we've really come a long way and the team communicates on the floor," Dengerud said. "The first game, the girls didn't really know their roles and I think we were nervous. We've been working on the team concept from the beginning and now we're better conditioned and I can use and rotate eight girls. The last three games (all losses) we were in it until the end. Tonight, we made our free throws at the end."
MVL head coach Dave Biedenbender didn't have any problems identifying what ailed the Chargers.
"We couldn't handle the defense Cathedral put on us," Biedenbender said. "We turned the ball over a lot and they played tougher than we did, and that's how you lose a game. Give Cathedral credit."
The scoring in the first half was erratic at best. After taking a 2-0 lead after the opening tip, MVL would score two points on free throws and wouldn't hit another bucket for nearly 14 minutes.
In the meantime, Karlee Pfaff nailed two 3s for the Greyhounds that resulted in just a 9-4 lead at the midway point of the first half. That lead climbed to 11-4 on a couple of Paige Pautzke free throws, then 15-4 on consecutive layups by Lisa Helget. In the middle were 10 turnovers, six by Cathedral and four by MVL.
A layup by Maria Schoof broke the Chargers' dry spell with 4:02 left in the half to make it 15-6, with MVL scoring the final five points in the half to be down by four, 15-11, at the break.
The Greyhounds started the second half by taking a 19-13 lead, but five points in a row by Sarah Burk cut that margin to 19-18. The score ended up knotted 22-22, with the Chargers finally taking a 23-22 lead on a Anna Munsen free throw.
MVL took a 31-29 advantage after a Emily Wessel trey, but Kristi Larson hit four crucial free throws in the final 41 seconds to give the Greyhounds a 37-31 lead with 21 seconds to go. A trey by Schoof with two seconds left ended the scoring.
The 8-8 Greyhounds were led by Helget with 10 points, while the 11-6 Chargers were paced by Schoof with 11.
Cathedral travels to take on Cedar Mountain/Comfrey Friday night at 7:30 p.m., while MVL hosts Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop at 7:30 p.m. Friday night.
