Staff photo by Jeremy Behnke New Ulm’s Kirsten Dennis drives to the basket as Springfield’s Madyson Digmann and Brooklyn Sturm defend on the play during Thursday’s game at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — For 21 minutes of the New Ulm Eagles girls’ non-conference basketball game against Springfield, it was a one or two possession game.

Tied at halftime at 27, it remained tied 3 minutes into the second half when New Ulm’s Ramsey Hopp canned a jumper.

But Brooklyn Sturm buried a 3-point shot that sparked a 15-6 run by the Tigers as they grabbed a 51-39 led and went on to top New Ulm 64-56.

Sturm led all scorers with 23 points.

Hopp paced New Ulm (12-10) with 20 points with Kirsten Dennis adding 14.

“We did mot take care of the ball very well,” New Ulm coach Julie Rogers said as her team was guilty of 13 turnovers in the game. “We had too many turnovers and we did not shoot very well. When our turnovers are high and our shooting percentage is high, we can survive. But when our turnovers are high and our shooting percentage is low, we are going to get beat.”

For the game, the Eagles made just 7-of-25 shots from beyond the arc.

The Tigers’ Sturm was the catalyst for that second-half run that saw them score 12 of their 16 points in that run via the 3-pointer.

“We came out in a 2-3 defense to try and contain [Sturm] and slow her down,” Rogers said. “We put Madeline Backer on her and she did a nice job but [Sturm] is a good ballplayer.”

While the Eagles missed long range shots, Rogers said that they missed too many normally easy shots.

“We can’t miss layups or shots in the paint,” Rogers said. “We have to make those and we did not do that tonight.”

The Eagles, who play road games next week at Worthington and Kasson-Mantorville, got as close 58-53 with less than 2 minutes left in the game on a Dennis 3-pointer, a Hopp basket and a Dennis jumper.

But the Tigers closed out the game on a 6-0 run.

When asked if the game was a step backwards, Rogers said it was.

“For sure,” she said. “This loss is going to hurt a little bit and that is OK. This was a game that we should have won and we didn’t.”