Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Hannah Marzinske (25) tries to stop Lauryn Franta of New Ulm Cathedral from driving to the hoop during the second half Tuesday at CHS. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — Minnesota Valley Lutheran pulled out a close game against New Ulm Cathedral as the Chargers won 51-48 in a Tomahawk Conference girls’ basketball game Tuesday night.

The Greyhounds (1-11) held a tight defensive effort by limiting the Chargers’ (6-6) offense.

MVL led early in the half with its points coming from outside with a 12-11 lead with just over seven minutes left in the first half.

Cathedral’s Becca Schwarz went up to get her own rebound and struggled to get the second shot, faking once and putting the ball up for the two points and the Greyhounds led13-12 with 7:16 left to play in the half.

The Chargers’ re-took the lead when Maddie Spurgin got the steal and completed the layup. Spurgin completed the 3-point play to give MVL a 16-15 lead.

With 37 seconds left to play in the first half, Cathedral’s McKenna Miling was fouled after she tallied a steal while being fouled going for the shot. She hit both for the Greyhounds 24-20 lead.

“Our main focus was rebounding, which we struggled with tonight, and to get the fast ball reversals, we are just a little slow now but hopefully we can catch up later,” Cathedral’s Rose Hazuka said.

The Greyhounds took a 26-20 lead into the half.

MVL got back on top with 11:25 left to play in the second half when Lauren Paulsen drove down low and completed a traditional three-point play. The Chargers now led 33-31, a lead they never relinquished back to the Greyhounds.

“After the first half we were in our heads a little bit, coming out from that we played better in the second half by penetrating more and looking to score, defensively we blocked out and got rebounds,” MVL’s Haley Birkholz said.

The Greyhounds came back and trailed 39-37 and later they converted a defensive rebound on a failed attempt by the Chargers as the Greyhounds come within 2 points.

MVL’s Birkholz added 6 points, all coming from the free throw line, in the final two minutes of the second half.

“I was trying to stay really confident, feeling really good about [the free throws] and just stay confident,” Birkholz said.

Cathedral came back to trail 49-48 with 20 seconds left on the clock when Helget dropped two from the free throw line and Lauryn Franta tallied a steal and put 2 points in to come within 1 point.

Hazuka stole the MVL inbound pass and drove all the way for a missed layup and MVL regained possession in the final seconds. With Cathedral forced to foul and MVL dropped two more from the line to win 51-48.

Hazuka led the Greyhounds with 19 points and Miling tallied 10 points.

Birkholz led the Chargers with 13 points and four steals, Paulsen ended with 10 points and 10 rebounds and Nelson had 6 points and 10 rebounds.

Cathedral will take on Cedar Mountain/Comfrey at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in Morgan.

MVL will host Cleveland at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.