Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Jevan Wilfahrt goes up for a slam dunk while chased by Wabasso’s Joe Liebl on Saturday during a Tomahawk Conference boys basketball game at Cathedral High School. Wilfahrt passed 1,000 career points on this dunk in the first half and the Greyhounds went on to win 54-50.

NEW ULM — Holding a 36-19 halftime lead, New Ulm Cathedral battled a furious Wabasso second-half surge to hang on for a 54-50 win Saturday afternoon in a Tomahawk Conference boys basketball game at Cathedral High School.

Jevan Wilfahrt led Cathedral (8-10, 5-7) with a game-high 27 points. The junior also cracked the 1,000-career-point mark. He now has 1,009 career points.

Elliot Hoffman added 11 points for the Greyhounds.

Tristan Larson paced the Rabbits (4-14, 3-9) with 21 points.

“Wabasso did a heck of a job competing throughout the night,” Cathedral head coach Alan Woitas said as his team won their second straight game in as many days. “We moved the ball exceptionally well in that first half. We got some players the ball in good spots — Jevan had really good first half — but a lot of that is to his teammates getting him the ball in the good spots where he could score.”

Wilfahrt scored 19 of his 27 points in that first half, including his 1,000th with 1:43 left in the half after a steal for a slam dunk.

That basket gave Cathedral a 36-16 lead.

It was a first half that saw the Rabbits come out of the blocks flat according to head coach Josh Hadley.

“We had a pretty high-energy game the night before (an 80-60 road win at Cedar Mountain) and it did not carry over to today,” Hadley said. “It was a pretty quick turnaround. But Cathedral was in the same situation. It was a hard-fought game. Credit to them and credit to our kids as well for sticking in it and coming back in the second half.”

Down 17 points at half, Wabasso slowly cut into the Greyhounds’ double-digit lead, cutting it to 36-27 on a 9-0 run sparked by a 3 from Ashton Rohlik.

Woitas said his team was getting some good looks early in the second half but not converting them into points.

“We did not make some shots and sometimes that happens throughout the course of the game,” Woitas said. “But we put ourselves in a good position defensively where we could afford that tonight and grind it out on the other end.”

The Rabbits pulled to within 47-41 before a bucket and two free throws from Wilfahrt and two charity shots from Hoffman sealed the game.

“He (Wilfahrt) made some winning plays late,” Woitas said. “We had good defensive stops late. Elliot hit two free throws late. So it was a collective group of guys that found a way to get it done.”

Cathedral is at Springfield on Tuesday, while Wabasso is at Minnesota Valley Lutheran Thursday.