NEW ULM — Sophomore Jon Zinniel scored 23 points in the first half as New Ulm Cathedral built a 38-10 halftime lead and went on to topple Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s 65-26 Friday night in a Tomahawk Conference boys’ basketball game.

Zinniel ended with 26 points along with five blocked shots and was aided by 11 points from Nate Hauser who led Cathedral (12-4, 7-1) with 12 rebounds.

Brandon Wait led the Knights (0-13, 0-8) with 9 points.

“We wanted to come out and play good Cathedral basketball,” Greyhounds coach Alan Woitas said. “We wanted to contest every shot and we wanted to limit them to one shot — they did have 5 points off of second chance opportunities. But we played good defense (forcing 12 St. Mary’s turnovers in the first half).”

The Knights did not shoot well in the first half as they made only 3 of 12 shots from the field and 1 of 11 from beyond the arc.

On the other hand, Zinniel was on fire. After Cathedral took an 8-4 lead, Zinniel canned three straight shots from beyond the arc for a 17-4 lead. A Hauser basket off of a Knights’ turnover and a jumper from Alex Hillesheim gave Cathedral a 21-4 lead.

Cathedral later went on a 15-0 run and took a commanding 36-7 lead as Zinniel dialed long distance three more times.

“My teammates put me in a good spot,” said Zinniel, who made six of his seven shots from beyond the arc in the first half. “I was feeling it and my teammates kept giving me the ball and they went in.”

“His teammates did a nice job making the extra pass,” Woitas said. “He got some screens on the backside of the zone and he was confident. That is what good teams do — they get the ball to whoever is having a good night.”

The Greyhounds, who are at GFW next Tuesday before a big home game next Friday against Springfield, made it a 48-15 lead on Zinniel’s seventh and final 3 of the night as the Cathedral starters went to the bench.