Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Morgan Hulke drives to the basket against Tri-City United in a nonconference girls basketball game Monday night at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — An energetic New Ulm, fueled by takeaways and tough rebounding, cruised past Tri-City United 74-30 Monday night in a nonconference girls basketball game.

The Eagles had a well-balanced offensive attack. Brooklyn Lewis recorded 17 points and two steals, Daviney Dreckman scored 14 points and had four rebounds and Morgan Hulke scored 12 points. Bryn Nesvold had 11 points and six rebounds, while Maddie Backer scored 9.

“We ran an offense we haven’t run for a while,” New Ulm head coach Julie Rogers said. “So we had to get back into that and remember what everybody’s responsibilities were. But once we started setting some good screens and dumping it in to the inside, then it created the shot on the outside. It takes a lot of teamwork. We just really played together tonight and helped each other out.”

The game started with a 14-2 New Ulm run that was sparked by Nesvold with a putback and a steal that she scored on herself. A 3 by TCU’s Audrey Vosejpka was answered with 5 quick points by Lewis to put the eagles up 19-5.

Transition points and second-chance opportunities were key to the New Ulm scoring. New Ulm fought for loose balls, despite having a significant size disadvantage in the game, having to deal with TCU’s 6-2 Isabella Jones.

“We knew we had to help Daviney or Ramsey Hopp underneath,” Rogers said. “They caught us a couple of times, she [Jones] did a nice job of posting up and they got it in there a couple times. But I would say more times they didn’t pass it in because they saw we had defense on the weak side, or we got the steal off of it. Really proud of the way they played defensively tonight.”

The Eagles ended the half up 33-14.

TCU hit two buckets at the beginning of the half, cutting the lead to 36-19. But the Eagles increased their lead with another big run, outscoring TCU 22-2, relying on transition buckets and outside shooting. Nesvold hit two 3s and a mid-range shot during the run, scoring 8 of her 9 points on the night.

By the time TCU’s Ella Schmiesing laid in a hook shot to stop the run, New Ulm was up 60-23, and shortly after, a running clock was implemented. A baseline shot by New Ulm’s Kaitlin Donnay was the final score on the night, giving the Eagles a 74-30 victory.

Rogers thought that the energy that the girls came out with helped the Eagles’ offense get into rhythm.

“It gets us more wide-open shots, it gets us running up the court,” said Rogers. “Speed is one of our assets. It also gets us running after loose balls. If there’s a missed shot, we’re gonna get the rebound, whether it’s offense or defense. It’s one of the things we said in the locker room before the game tonight. We wanted to control the pace of the game from the get-go.”

New Ulm (13-6, 5-3) will travel to Worthington on Friday.