NEW ULM — For the first time since 1995, the New Um Eagles boys’ basketball team are conference champions.

Colton Benson scored 32 points with James Osborne adding 20 and Charlie Osborne contributing 12 as New Ulm claimed the Big South Conference crown with a 72-61 win over Marshall Friday night.

“Marshall (14-10, 10-3) is a program that we have looked at as a model for three years,” New Um coach Matt Dennis said. “They play hard every night. The difference in the game was that our boys did not miss shots, especially down the stretch and their shots did not go in.

“We played with fire tonight and credit the crowd and our crowd did the job,” Dennis said.

New Ulm (17-5, 10-1) came out of the gate and took a 20-10 lead as the duo of Benson and James Osborne took charge. Benson scored 11 of the 20 points with James Osborne tossing in 9.

A 3-pointer from Collin Horning saw the Eagles doubling up Marshall at 24-21 before the Tigers cut the lead to 24-21.

But a hoop from James Osborne sparked a run that saw the Eagles take a 38-23 lead on a 3 from Benson and two baskets from James Osborne, who scored all of his 20 game points in the first half as New Ulm held a 40-30 lead.

Benson had 14 of his 32 points in the first half.

“They both came to play in that first half,” Dennis said. “They played hard the whole game and they carried us offensively in that first half.”

The Eagles made it a 42-30 lead with a Benson basket to start the second half before the Tigers outscored New Ulm 11-0 to cut the lead to 42-41 on a Tyler Maeyaert basket.

The Tigers then took their only lead of the game at 45-44 on a Noah Wilts’ 3-pointer.

“We know that it is a game of runs and we talked about it before the game,” Dennis said. “They made their shots. But we responded.”

Benson jump-started the Eagles’ offense with a bucket and followed that up with a 3-pointer. A 3 later from Charlie Osborne had New Ulm leading 59-46.

Benson’s 28th point of the game upped the lead to 64-51 and a basket from Charlie Osborne salted the game away at 68-51 with 2 minutes to go in the game.

“It is unbelievable being conference champions,” Dennis said. “But we believed it from the start. Three years ago we set that as a goal. And people looked at us sideways — they did not believe us, because New Ulm does not do that. But we knew we had the guys to do it.”