File photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm’s Reece Melby takes a shot during a recent game at New Ulm High School.

By Travis Rosenau

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM — After a 13-0 run to take back the lead in the second half on Friday night, New Ulm put away St. Peter 53-51 in Big South Conference boys’ basketball action.

Connor Foley led the Eagles comeback with 30 points, eight rebounds, five steals and three blocks. Reece Melby and Matt Janke each added 8 points and had four boards apiece for the Eagles, while Braden Zimmerman had 7 points and two steals.

The Eagles trailed 40-28 with 10:01 left in the game before they went on a 13-0 run to lead 41-40. The run started with a turnaround jumper by Foley and ended with an and-one by Foley.

The Saints grabbed the lead back shortly after and built their lead back up to just 3, 44-41, after a pair of free throws. Trailing 46-45, the Eagles used a timeout with 1:59 left on the clock.

Out of the timeout, they patiently worked the ball around for almost 40 seconds before a dish inside to Janke led to a foul and a trip to the line. Janke sank both free throws to put his squad up 47-46 with 1:19 remaining.

St. Peter tied the game up at 49-49 with 12 seconds left, but Melby was fouled and sank both free throws to put New Ulm ahead by 2 with 4.7 seconds left. St. Peter was able to knock down a pair of late free throws, but after fouling with .3 left on the clock, Melby knocked down the first of two bonus free throws for the final score and win.

New Ulm coach Steve Foley said that the win does a lot for the team’s confidence after four tough losses in a row to Faribault, Redwood Valley, Blue Earth Area in double overtime and Worthington.

“I think it’s a building block, something we can build upon the confidence of — we can play, we can compete,” coach Foley said. “We still need to do a better job of shooting free throws down the stretch [6 of 12 on free throws in the final minute of play]. That’s huge — that mental toughness to step up the line and make those free throws. But I think this does a tremendous job for the kids’ confidence and heading into next week — hopefully we can build upon that.”

The first half started out slow as the Eagles took a 15-7 lead on a 3 by Melby with around 10 minutes left in the half. St. Peter went on a run and took a 16-15 lead after an uncontested 3 by Seth Lokensgard with 6:18 to play in the half.

Foley sent a shot away with a second left and the Eagles didn’t allow the Saints to get a final bucket before the half as they trailed 24-21 at the break.

The Eagles’ second-half efforts, led by 18 points from Foley meant all the difference.

“Their zone — at times we really attacked it, and that’s why we came back,” Connor Foley said. “I think at like the 10 minute mark, we really started to attack their zone and that’s when we started to cut away at their lead. Then we got the lead and we won. It’s a great feeling.”

New Ulm moves to 8-8 on the year and 4-4 in the conference and next play at Albert Lea at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.