Indians clamp down in 2nd half, top Greyhounds
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NEW ULM -- While New Ulm Cathedral held Sleepy Eye in check from beyond the arc Monday, the Indians made up for it with dominance in the paint on the way to a 72-36 win in a Tomahawk Conference girls basketball game at Cathedral High School.
Brea Mertz led the Indians with 24 points and nine rebounds, while Kadence Hesse had 21 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Sleepy Eye was held to just three made 3-pointers in the win, two from Hesse, but it was able to make up for it with takeaways, fast-break layups and points in the paint.
"It was just kind of what they were giving me," Mertz said. "I tried to shoot from the outside more, but it just wasn't there. They were playing really good defense, I thought."
The Greyhounds, led by Jenna Hotovec's 12 points and Maddie Gilles' 8 points, did keep things close in the first half with a press that created some Sleepy Eye turnovers. After Hesse's first 3 of the game put the Indians up 7-1, Margo Finstad answered with a 3 of her own.
A Sleepy Eye turnover then led to a 3 from Hotovec to have the Greyhounds down 11-7. But the Indians picked up the pressure and cruised to a 17-0 run to lead 28-7.
The Greyhounds ended the half with a little momentum, getting a bucket inside by Ava Krueger and a 3 from Gilles to trail 36-22 at halftime.
"I think we all just need to relax a little," Hesse said of the first half. "Monday games are tough and coming off a break is tough, too, with minimal practices and we all just need to find each other again and get back in the groove."
And get back in the groove the Indians did in the second half, erasing the Greyhounds' late first-half surge with a 10-2 run out of the break. Everything the Greyhounds put together offensively from there out was answered as the Indians continued to increase their lead to 30 after a layup from Mertz. Freshman Jaelynn Schauman added the final two buckets of the game off the bench for Sleepy Eye to give the Indians their largest lead of the night and final score.
"We kind of let them come back in the first half a little bit because we weren't playing very good defense," Mertz said. "But we just came together and worked as a team."
Sleepy Eye guard Cadence Okerman, who was out of action after fracturing her arm in the first game of the season, returned to the lineup on Monday and added 8 points and four rebounds. Paige Haala added five rebounds and three assists for Sleepy Eye.
Sleepy Eye (6-4, 2-1) is coming off of a 48-38 holiday tournament win over Minneota (4-1) on Dec. 28, 2022, at Southwest Minnesota State University.
Starting the new year off with another win is one more confidence-builder for the team.
"It's good, especially winning Minneota," Hesse said. "Not many other teams are going to be a lot better than they are, so that helps us as we go forward, knowing that we should be sitting at the top of our conference and any other teams we play, and we'll hopefully just grow into an even stronger team as playoffs roll around."
Sleepy Eye hosts Wabasso for a conference game on Thursday.
As for the Greyhounds (2-5, 1-3), they'll look to get back in the win column this Friday when they travel to Springfield for a conference game.