Cathedral runs past MVL
Trending
NEW ULM -- While his teammates were getting some of the offensive highlights, New Ulm Cathedral's Alex Hillesheim was inside doing the dirty work.
Hillesheim pulled down 18 rebounds and scored 9 points. More importantly, he seemed to find the ball every time Minnesota Valley Lutheran missed a shot and he helped Cathedral hold off MVL 70-58 in a Tomahawk Conference boys' basketball game.
The game was a battle for second place in the conference standings, but in the end, Cathedral earned the season sweep over its cross-town rivals.
The Greyhounds improved to 17-5 overall and 11-2 in the conference with the win. MVL slipped to 15-7 overall and 9-4 in conference play.
In a game that had the March playoff atmosphere, it was Cathedral that built the early lead (22-4 at one point) but watched MVL chip away in the second half. However, some late stops by Cathedral and some free throws at the end helped the Greyhounds pull away.
"It was really fun," Hillesheim said after the win. "We know that going to MVL, they always have a lot of fans here and we knew that the girls [Cathedral girls' basketball team] didn't have a game tonight so they'd be here. Our fan base is just as wild as MVL's so we knew the atmosphere was going to be really big tonight. We were just prepared for it."
The Greyhounds were led by Hillesheim's effort. Once again, they moved the ball around well and spread the scoring out. James Gillis had 17 points, while Nathan Hauser and Jon Zinniel finished with 16 points.
Cathedral looked like it was going to run away with a convincing win early. Up 8-4, Jacob Manderfeld and Gillis hit back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 14-4. A 14-0 Cathedral run saw it go up 22-4 with 9 minutes left in the first half.
"We beat them the first time pretty good, we knew that they weren't going to take us lightly this time," Hillesheim said. "We really buckled down in practice and we knew that we had to start out strong. Coach always tells us that the first 5 minutes we've got to win and that's what we did."
MVL didn't offer much resistance in the first half and trailed 38-22 at halftime. That's when things changed.
The Chargers used a big run in the second half to shift the momentum. MVL cut a 43-24 deficit down and trailed 43-40 on a basket by Munsen. The 16-0 run by the Chargers saw them making better passes and making stops on the defensive end.
"We switched our defense up a little bit and we were trying some new things out there," MVL's Matt Munsen said. "The intensity level in the second half was much higher, we had a lot of fans here and we appreciate that."
Cathedral's scoring drought ended when Manderfeld scored with 10:14 to go in the half to give his team a 45-40 lead.
"We weren't making shots at the beginning of the second half, we were probably taking too many quick shots," Cathedral coach Alan Woitas said. "When shots aren't going in, you have to slow down a little bit. I think the environment and through MVL's run, our guys kept their composure for three really big possessions in a roll and we made some stops.
The Chargers tied the game a 47 on two free throws by Munsen. Cathedral got consecutive baskets from Hauser and Zinniel to give it a 51-47 lead with 7:08 remaining and the Greyhounds slowly pulled away at that point.
MVL hosts Sleepy Eye St. Mary's on Tuesday and Cathedral is at Cedar Mountain/Comfrey on Tuesday.
The Chargers have four games left before the playoffs start, including a home game against first-place Springfield on Feb. 20. They've had some struggles recently, but Munsen hopes that they can move on from that.
"That's all behind us, starting from this game and from now on for the rest of the season until the end of the playoffs," Munsen said.
It was big win in the conference standings for Cathedral. It also meant a lot for the upcoming Section 2A playoffs, too.
"This is huge, BOLD just lost [on Thursday] in a game to Springfield, so we knew that would help our seed and we decided that we have to go out and get a win and fight for that No. 2 seed," Hillesheim said.