Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Kaylee Hunter (2) takes a shot over Emma Sullivan (14) of Cedar Mountain during the second half Thursday at MVL.

NEW ULM — Despite a slow start, Minnesota Valley Lutheran got things figured out and ran away with a 61-39 Tomahawk Conference girls’ basketball victory on Thursday.

Abbie Riederer led all scorers with 30 points. She also had four assists and four steals. Sam Daleug finished with 11 points and Kaylee Hunter had 8 points and five steals. Rylee Woller led the Chargers with four rebounds.

Megan Sandgren led Cedar Mountain with 22 points.

Up 6-2 early on, the Cougars got to within 8-7 after a free throw from Teresa Larsen with about 10 minutes left in the first half. But the Chargers went on a 8-0 run thanks to baskets by Riederer, Kaylee Hunter and Samantha Daleug less than 2 minutes later to stretch their lead.

Riederer then hit three consecutive baskets to make it 24-9 and the rout was on. She later hit back-to-back baskets to give the Chargers a 29-11 lead and they went into the locker room with a 32-15 lead.

MVL then carried that momentum over in the second half, outscoring the Cougars 19-4 to start the half and they led 51-17 at one point. Their defense led to 32 Cedar Mountain turnovers in the game and that led to some transition baskets for MVL.

MVL (8-3) gets back into action on Tuesday when it hosts Wabasso. Cedar Mountain hosts Immanuel Lutheran on Monday.