Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm’s Daviney Dreckman drives between Morgan Kelley (30) and Josie Wiebusch (24) of St. Peter Monday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — Early in the their game with St. Peter, New Ulm’s sophomore point guard Kirsten Dennis buried a 3-point shot to pull the Eagles to within 11-10.

But that was a close as New Ulm would come to St.Peter as the Saints went on a 20-10 run and claimed an 82-63 win over New Ulm Monday night in a Big South Conference girl’s basketball game.

Dennis paced New Ulm (0-1, 0-1) with 21 points. Freshman Bryn Nesvold added 13 with senior Hannah Osborne contributing 10.

Morgan Kelly led St. Peter (1-1, 1-0) with 27 points.

“In the second half we got their lead down to 10 points (55-45 on an Olivia Wick basket) but we were not disciplined in our man defense,” New Ulm coach Brian Batt said. “There is supposed to be more help side on that is but that is the breakdown when you throwing eighth and ninth-graders our there.”

St. Peter slowly pulled away from New Ulm taking leads of 67-52 and a 74-54 lead with just over four minutes left in the game.

“I am not disappointed,” Batt said. “St. Peter was in the state last year and we battled them. We have a lot of work to do but I saw a lot of good things.”

The Eagles stayed close in the first half against a veteran St. Peter team, falling behind 18-12 but battling back behind the play of Bryn Nesvold and Dennis, who canned baskets to pull within 29-20.

Dennis’ two free throws to close out the first half saw St. Peter with a 39-25 lead at halftime.

Nora Windchill, Nesvold and Dennis kept New Ulm relatively close in the second half with a Dennis’ 3 pulling New Ulm to within 51-37.

“She (Dennis) is incredibly fast,” Batt said. “We did not do a good job of moving the ball tonight — we stood around and watched her. Where she is going to be very effective is when she can kick the ball, come off of some screens and get the ball and drive, I am impressed -she is going to be a good one.

“Bryn (Nesvold) had some drives to the basket and Hannan Osborne is going to score. (Eighth grader) Daivney Dreckman is going to score,” Batt said. “All in all for the first game I would give us a B-. We need to talk better. Some people have low expectations of us but i think that we are going to surprise people.”