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Greyhounds upset Thunderbirds

Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop’s Miah Busse (24) tries to get a shot off as New Ulm Cathedral’s Becca Schwarz defends on the play during the first half Tuesday at CHS. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

By Travis Rosenau

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM — When you struggle at the foul line, there’s a good chance you’re going to struggle picking up a win. That was the case for Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop against New Ulm Cathedral on Tuesday night.

The Greyhounds (3-13, 2-8) knocked off the Thunderbirds (11-6, 7-3) 39-37 in Tomahawk Conference girls’ basketball action after trailing by 6 in the second half.

The Cathedral comeback began after Emily Heimkes, who led GFW with 12 points on the night, knocked down a pair of free throws to put GFW ahead 35-29 with 5:38 left in the game. Despite the two makes at the line, GFW missed eight free throws in the second half alone and paid for it as a result.

Cathedral’s Jenna Helget and Heidi Hoffman then hit on back-to-back buckets to cut the deficit to 35-33 before Rose Hazuka converted an and-one to put the Greyhounds ahead by 1 with a little less than four minutes to play. Hazuka led the Greyhounds on the night with 10 points.

Becca Schwarz then got open inside for 2 to extend the Cathedral lead to 38-35 with 1:13 remaining. GFW cut the deficit to 39-37 after a pair of key free throws by Abby Neuman, but the missed free throws earlier had already taken a toll on the Thunderbirds.

With GFW needing to come up with a clutch shot with 4 seconds to go, Hazuka blocked a GFW 3 and sent the Cathedral crowd home happy with the upset win.

“I think for all of us, this really helps create better momentum going into the second half of the season,” Hazuka said. “Our first half was really rocky, but I think this will really help boost our momentum and help us get things going again.”

GFW went ahead 5-2 early on in the first half after a bucket inside by Grace Swenson. Cathedral tied the game up at 6-6 on a deep jumper by McKenna Miling and then took the lead after a bucket inside by Hoffman and a pair of free throws by Hazuka. Miah Busse buried a 3 after a Thunderbirds’ timeout to cut the GFW deficit to 10-9 in the first half.

Busse added 8 points for the Thunderbirds.

Cathedral led by as much as 6 in the first half after a 3 by Hazuka made the score 18-12, but GFW battled back and cut the deficit to 22-20 at the half after a 3 by Katelynn Firle, who had 10 points on the night.

The Thunderbirds tied things up at 24-24 on a layup by Heimkes early on in the second half and took the lead shortly after on a Busse layup. GFW led up until the Cathedral comeback with less than six minutes to go.

For the Greyhounds, Hoffman scored 9 points, Helget added 8, and Schwarz and Miling each chipped in 6.

“I kind of told the girls all season to just have faith,” Cathedral coach Dave Wilfahrt said. “We’re going to have some close, competitive games and some of those will be against good teams. GFW is a good team. We tried to just hang in there and do our best and it worked out for us.”

GFW hosts Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday for conference action, while the Greyhounds travel to Springfield for a 7:30 p.m. conference game Friday.

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