Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Sleepy Eye’s Ben Laffen tries to get past New Ulm Cathedral’s James Gillis during the second half Thursday at CHS. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — While it was the second game back from the holiday break for New Ulm Cathedral, it looked like the Greyhounds were still in vacation mode at times.

The Greyhounds struggled to get going offensively but their defense made up for it in a 59-46 Tomahawk Conference boys’ basketball victory against Sleepy Eye on Thursday.

While it was frustrating at times for his team, Cathedral coach Alan Woitas didn’t seemed to be bothered too much by it.

“Any night over the course of the season, you’re going to have a bad shooting night,” Woitas said. “Tonight we didn’t knock down some shots that we maybe typically make and it frustrated us a little bit, but I think it increased our defensive intensity at the same time.”

For the Indians (4-6, 1-3), it was their first game back since a 78-74 victory at Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City on Dec. 22. The long layoff showed for them at times, too.

“It’s [the layoff] and kids being sick, it’s our first game back and turning the ball over like that for us has been uncharacteristic, the rust kind of showed for us from the break,” Sleepy Eye coach Shane Heiderscheidt said. “I was kind of amazed that we were in the game that close at the end.”

The Greyhounds led 32-21 at halftime after jumping out to an 8-2 lead to start the game. The lead was never in jeopardy, but the Indians’ defense didn’t allow too many easy baskets for the Greyhounds either.

Their biggest lead of the half came on a 4-point play with less than 2 minutes to play in the first half.

While the shots may have been off for Cathedral, its defense was on. Cathedral frustrated Sleepy Eye at times and the Indians struggled to get into any offensive flow.

“Good teams can win one way, better teams find multiple ways to win and we were able to do that tonight,” Woitas said. “We really contested every shot and we rebounded almost even with a team that’s much bigger than us. Those are our two weaknesses coming into the game and I think we’re improving as the year goes along and I think in another month and a half, we’ll be better yet.”

James Gillis led Cathedral with 16 points and Nathan Hauser finished with 13 points and Jon Zinniel scored 12 points.

Avery Stevens scored 14 points to lead the Indians and Mitch Laffen and Nathan Walter each scored 10.

The Indians were able to keep the score close despite not having their shots fall.

“I always preach that basketball is a game of runs,” Heiderscheidt said. “Sooner or later, our shots are going to fall and we’ll get our legs back again. We’ll get a good week of practice and get moving the ball.”

On Monday, the Greyhounds (8-4, 3-1) travel to Minnesota Valley Lutheran in a big Tomahawk Conference battle. The Chargers are 6-3 overall and 3-0 in the conference.

“Our kids always get excited playing MVL and because we’re both having a really good year, it should be a fun environment and hopefully a lot of people show up,” Woitas said.