Staff photo by Ari Selvey Springfield’s Jasmine Peterson-Novotny drives to the hoop against Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Becca Kuck in a Tomahawk Conference girls basketball game Tuesday night at MVL high school.

NEW ULM — A well-rounded offensive attack led Springfield by Minnesota Valley Lutheran 59-42 Tuesday night in a Tomahawk Conference girls basketball matchup at MVL High School.

The Tigers had four players in double-digit point totals, led by Brooklyn Sturm’s 21 points, seven rebounds and five steals. Marissa Pabst had 12 points and five rebounds, while Maddy Digmann had 10 points and 11 rebounds and Lexie Groebner had 10 points.

“We like to get everybody involved so everybody’s getting their chance to score,” Springfield head coach Mike Kelly said. “Some nights some kids will score a lot of points, and some nights you don’t, but then hopefully someone else will pick up the slack for them. We just try to move it around as much as we can, and whoever has the hot hand, hopefully we can get it to them a lot more.”

The Chargers, meanwhile, were led by Ella Mullenbach’s 24 points. Kerigan Brau added 8 points and seven rebounds.

The teams traded buckets early, with Mullenbach’s three 3s giving MVL to an early 11-10 lead. Springfield then took the lead with an 8-0 run that put it up 18-11. Some free throws by MVL’s Becca Kuck and Mullenbach, along with a short jumper by Mullenbach, cut the Springfield lead to 19-16. The Tigers responded by going on another 8-0 run to go up 27-16.

A mid-range shot by Kuck stopped the run, but Springfield scored three more times to end the half up 33-18.

MVL came out hot in the second half, getting the first 8 points of the period with 3s by Mullenbach and Brau and a mid-range shot by Kuck.

“We came out really strong in the second half,” MVL head coach Hailey Santos said. “We started to get some defensive pressure. Maintaining and sustaining that energy seems to be our problem right now, and finding girls that can be consistent with that and not just in five-minute chunks.

“I’m seeing bits and pieces, girls continue to surprise me. I think overall we’re not getting a lot of victories, but we’re seeing a lot of victories within our game.”

Sturm hit a 3 to end the Tigers’ scoring drought and increase their lead to 36-26.

The teams went back and forth for much of the second half, with MVL hitting key buckets to stay within range of Springfield. But Springfield managed to incrementally increase their lead throughout the half.

By the time Springfield called a timeout with 4:17 left in the game, the score was 52-39. MVL was unable to muster a full comeback, and Springfield scored the final 6 points of the game to win 59-42.

Many of Springfield’s points came off of transition opportunities.

“Certain nights and against certain teams it seems like we’re able to get out and run a bit more,” said Kelly. “But then there’s some nights where we’re going to have to slow the pace down a little bit depending on who we play. Tonight we were able to get a lot of fast-break opportunities which really helped us, so we didn’t have to set it up as much as we usually do.”

Santos was complementary of how her team had played in spite of the loss.

“My girls have continually showed this game in and game out, that they will continue to fight until that final buzzer,” Santos said. “Keys of the day were just getting more rebounds and being more physical with them. Unfortunately, even with our made shots and being able to dig ourselves back little by little, we weren’t getting it done on the defensive end.”

MVL (1-16, 0-10) will host Tri-City United on Thursday. Springfield (10-7, 7-5) will travel to Hector to play Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart on Friday.