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NEW ULM -- In their two regular season meetings this year, Sleepy Eye St. Mary's had defeated New Ulm Cathedral by 15 and 30 points.
On Thursday night in a Section 2A, North Subsection semifinal playoff game, the contest came down to the final minute of play before a very good St. Mary's Knights team was able to hold off Cathedral 63-59.
"We approached this game differently with some of our match-ups," Cathedral head coach Alan Woitas said. "That benefited us early on but also it was the first time that we had been fully healthy. Our first two meetings we had kids who played but were not at 100%. And our team has gotten better throughout the year, we were playing our best basketball come section tournament time."
Cathedral did have Sam Knowles for both of the regular season games but Woitas said that in their first meeting it was Knowles' first game back from an elbow injury and was limited.
"And in our second game he was dealing with a mild MCL sprain."
And Knowles, who led the Tomahawk Conference in rebounding with 242 (17.3 per game) despite missing two games and was fifth in scoring with an average of 19.5 points per game, is one of the better defensive players if not the best defensive player in the conference and in the area, Woitas said.
As a team, the Greyhounds were the best in the Tomahawk Conference, giving up only 53.5 points per game.
"He did a great job [Thursday] on limiting [Trent] Steffensmeier's ability to hurt us," Woitas said. Steffensmeier ended with 10 points.
Cathedral also shot the 3-point shot well Thursday as it made 11 of 29 shots from beyond the arc.
"That was one of our better shooting games [from the 3-point line]. We were able to make them at the proper time."
Woitas thought that the turning point in the game came when the score was tied at 42. "They had a couple of run-outs to push it to a 6-point lead and those are two possesions we wish we could have back. They made one or two more shots than we did."
CHARGERS HAVE OFF-SEASON: When this season started, Minnesota Valley Lutheran head basketball coach Craig Morgan was not sure where his team would end up.
"I had some players come up to the varsity from the freshman team and skip the JV and we had some seniors who decided not to come out," he said. "That made us adjust our goals. Having those players skip the JV hurt because [JV coach] Jeff Schoenherr works on fundamentals. That hurt us. I was reviewing a lot of the basics that they did not get."
MVL also started the season without Cole and Luke Thompson due to injuries.
"We lost that experience but it also gave others the chance to get more reps in practice," Morgan said. "Garrett Parker stepped up for us in the post. All of the sophomores stepped up and really made an improvement. Ben Pearson at the point (87 assists and 71 steals), Kyler Flunker (12 blocked shots). I knew that Cole Thompson could contribute but it took him a while to get back in the groove."
And usually the Chargers are a good offensive team but this year in the conference may have been an aberration.
MVL was last in the conference in team field goal percentage (35.3%), free throws (40.4 %), 3-point shooting (26.3 %) and last in team defense allowing 68.6 points per game.
"We can be a much better team next year but that depends on what we do in the off-season and the work that the returning players put in. We were inexperienced at making decisions on the offensive end. We did not read defenses very well. We did improve our shooting late in the season."
One person who Morgan knows he will miss the most next season and one who does not get any credit is his stat man Isaac Bakke.
"He has been with me for four years. I do not question his stats -- I always have stats after every game that I can send out. I will miss him."