Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Lexi Fischer (11) takes a shot as New Ulm Cathedral’s Lauryn Franta and Emily Schommer (25) look on during the first half Tuesday at MVL.

NEW ULM — One night after the Minnesota Valley Lutheran boys’ basketball team snagged a road win over its rivals in New Ulm Cathedral, the MVL girls’ team picked up a big 74-41 home win over Cathedral in Tomahawk Conference girls’ basketball action on Tuesday night.

Leading the way for the balanced Chargers was Lexi Fischer, with 21 points, 10 rebounds and five steals, while Maddie Pearson had 12 points and six rebounds. Also for MVL, Lauren Paulsen added 9 points and six rebounds, Abbie Riederer had 8 points and Emma Nelson had 7 points and eight rebounds.

“I thought we were moving the ball around really well, especially when we were running it,” MVL head coach Rollin Timm said. “We slowed down here at the end, it got a little bit ragged, but we’re not used to playing that way and we’ve got to learn how to play that way too.”

MVL broke out to a 9-1 lead early on, with an effective full-court press creating a few early turnovers for points and causing Greyhounds head coach Dave Wilfahrt to burn a timeout. Cathedral was able to briefly halt the MVL run after a bucket inside by McKenna Miling and a 3-pointer by Lauryn Franta, who finished the night with 11 points.

MVL, however, went on a 7-0 run to take a double-digit lead, 16-6, shortly after a Fischer bucket inside and a free throw. The Greyhounds hung around, though, and trailed 23-15 after a 3 by Franta.

That 3, however, was about as good as it got for Cathedral the remainder of the half.

MVL ended the half with a 45-18 lead after going on a 22-3 run to end the half. MVL’s Kaylee Hunter beat the halftime buzzer with a nothing-but-net 3.

After the Chargers stretched the lead out to 30 in the second half, Heidi Hoffman had a bucket inside and a 3 to bring the Greyhounds back within 25, 55-30, which forced an MVL timeout with 10:32 left to play. Hoffman ended the night with 10 points.

The Chargers didn’t seem too bothered by the brief Cathedral run and jumped back ahead by as much as 34 after the timeout, cruising the rest of the way to the win.

“It’s very nice to have everybody contribute,” Timm said. “It will be good for our momentum, it will be good for our growth. I think what we have is some depth. We’ve got eight, nine interchangeable players, and after awhile, other teams just get sick of seeing them flying around out there.”

MVL (7-1, 4-1) is at Cleveland on Thursday, while Cathedral (4-8, 1-6) hosts Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart on Friday.