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Batt’s 27 leads New Ulm in OT win

Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm’s Joey Batt (1) gets a shot off between three Waseca defenders during the second half Thursday at New Ulm High School. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — Finally.

After four straight frustrating losses to Waseca, New Ulm’s Joey Batt and the rest of the Eagles made sure No. 5 wasn’t going to happen on their home floor.

Batt led the way with 27 points and New Ulm defeated Waseca 58-54 in overtime in Big South Conference girls’ basketball action on Thursday night.

It was a satisfying victory to say the least. New Ulm had chances to win all of the previous four games with Waseca but wasn’t able to get it done. One of those losses came in the Section 2AAA championship last year. But on Thursday, New Ulm led all but a couple of minutes in the game and held on.

“It feels amazing, they’re one of the top teams in our section and so to know that we can compete with them, it feels amazing,” Batt said. “Plus, to know that they beat us how ever many of the past games, it feels great to get the win.”

It was the first Big South loss for Waseca, which is now 18-3 on the year and 8-1 in the conference. New Ulm improved to 15-5 and 6-3 in the conference.

Waseca forced overtime with a 3-pointer by Brianna Highum with 4.1 seconds left to tie it at 51. It seemed like a crushing blow for the Eagles, but they didn’t let it get to them. The Eagles had some big defensive plays in overtime, including a steal by Batt, a blocked shot by Hannah Osborne and a turnover forced by Iyanna Wieland. New Ulm outscored Waseca 7-3 in the extra session, including a 3 from Wieland that made it 54-53 after the Bluejays scored first.

Free throws by Wieland and Batt finished off the win for the Eagles, who expected the Bluejays to battle back late.

“We know that they’ll never give up, we know that if we’re up by 20, they’ll still fight and they won’t give up at the end,” she said.

Her dad and coach Brian Batt seemed relieved after a close call.

“What was special for me was we almost had them at the end of regulation and they hit that 3 and it went into overtime,” he said. “Some teams will wilt but our girls stood strong and came out with renewed intensity in the overtime.”

New Ulm led 30-27 at halftime after leading all but a few seconds in the first half. The Eagles slowly built that lead in the second half, going up 41-32 on a free throw by Morgan Eikanger with 10:27 left. The lead was consistently between 4-8 points most of the half until the final five minutes.

Batt got a steal and a layup with 4:57 left and the Eagles were up 49-38. After that, the lid was on the Eagles’ basket so to speak as they didn’t score for 4 minutes, 24 seconds. During that stretch, Waseca went on a 10-0 run, highlighted by a couple of baskets by Highum.

Batt hit a pair of free throws with 33 seconds left and New Ulm led 51-48, but Bighum’s 3 as time was running out forced overtime.

Wieland had 10 points for New Ulm and Osborne finished with 9 points. Bighum led Waseca with 15 points and Taylor Hiller had 10 points.

New Ulm looks to continue the momentum on Monday when it hosts Mankato East in a nonconference battle.

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