MVL takes over lead in Tomahawk
NEW ULM — In the battle for the top spot in the Tomahawk Conference boy’s basketball between New Ulm Cathedral and Minnesota Valley Lutheran, it was the Chargers who came out on top Monday night.
MVL sank 25 of 35 free throws in the game and scored the 12 of its last 16 points from the charity stripe as the Chargers came away with a 72-66 win over the Greyhounds.
Dunwa Omot paced MVL with a game-high 27 points, including sinking 12 of 15 free throw attempts. Jace Marotz and Mason Cox scored 16 and 15 points respectively for the Chargers, who improved to 5-0 in the conference and 11-0 overall.
Cox grabbed 12 rebounds for MVL with Marotz hauling down 10.
Jon Zinniel and James Gillis each scored 16 points for Cathedral (10-1, 5-1) with Chris Knowles adding 15 and Sam Knowles 14.
Zinniel had seven boards with Sam Knowles grabbing nine.
“I was happy with the way that our guys played well during stretches where they were challenged mentally and physically,” MVL head coach Craig Morgan said “And it was good win for us.”
“Both teams played hard and both teams competed,” Greyhounds head coach Alan Woitas said. “It was a fun basketball game and I was happy with the way we battled back in the game.”
It was game that was close start to finish with Cathedral taking its only lead of the game early at 16-15 on a Zinniel basket.
But MVL could never increase their lead into a comfortable one.
Their biggest lead in the first half was at 25-18 on a Jacob Norris basket off of a feed from Kyreis Harrison as the Chargers held a slim 31-25 lead at halftime.
“We had the lead but it was not a comfortable one,” Morgan said. “Cathedral can go off at any time. They have a lot of good players.”
Cathedral fell behind 38-31 early in the second half but cut the lead to 38-36 on two free throws from Chris Knowles.
Two Omot free throws at the 10:37 mark saw MVL holding a 45-38 lead and the Chargers built that lead to their biggest of the game at 64-51 on two free throws from Elijah Schoof with 3:13 left in the game.
“They made a few more plays throughout the course of the game that contributed to their win tonight,” said Woitas.
Cathedral clawed back to within 68-62 on two James Gillis free throws before Omot sank his 11th and 12th free throws of the game.
“There is not much that rattles him,” Morgan said about Omot.