Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s James Osborne looks to pass while guarded by Belle Plaine’s Ethan Martin (21) and Emmett Gerres (2) during a nonconference boys basketball game with Belle Plaine on Friday night at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — Looking for a statement win with playoffs around the corner, Belle Plaine got just that at the expense of the New Ulm on Friday night.

With four players in double figures and a fast-break filled second half, the Tigers raced away to an 81-60 win over the Eagles in nonconference boys basketball action at New Ulm High School.

Ethan Martin led the Tigers with 21 points, while Andrew Siegle scored 17, Teddy Traxler had 15 and Emmett Gerres added 14.

Colton Benson led New Ulm with 22 points, while Nate Firle had 10 points, James Osborne had 9 and Easton Clark added 8.

The Class AA Tigers are having one of their strongest seasons in the past several years, moving to 16-5 on the season after Friday’s win. The 16 wins is the highest wins total for Belle Plaine since the 2015-16 season when the Tigers went 19-9.

“I’m just going to credit Belle Plaine,” Eagles head coach Matt Dennis said. “They just came out with a purpose, and they have something to prove. They’re having a very, very good season ad they want that defining victory, so they came in here thinking that could be us, and down the stretch, we just didn’t match what they had. We didn’t go point for point with them and they stretched out the lead, but I credit their players. They came in here, they knocked down some big-time shots and they did a nice job.”

A 3 by Martin gave the Tigers an early 13-3 lead, but a 7-0 run later on saw the Eagles quickly back in front, 20-19. The run started with a bucket inside from Firle and was finished with a Mason Epper 3 and a fast-break layup by Benson.

The Tigers got back-to-back 3s to lead 25-20, but another 3 by Epper and a fast-break layup from Clark knotted the score up again.

The Eagles trailed by as much as 6 in the first half after that, but stayed right on the Tigers’ heels and trailed 40-36 at halftime.

A breakaway slam dunk by Osborne gave the Eagles some energy and had them down 43-42 minutes into the second half, but the Tigers got a pair of corner 3s from Traxler to help push their lead to 51-44. The Tigers pushed their lead to 10, but Benson’s first 3 of the night helped get the Eagles back within 6, 59-53, with a little more than 10 minutes left.

Belle Plaine then broke things open shortly after with an 11-0 run, highlighted on a fast-break putback by Gerres that drew a foul and a chance at an and-one. Gerres converted on the extra free throw to put Belle Plaine up 68-53.

The Tigers pushed their lead to 21 in the final two minutes of play on the way to their win.

The Eagles, ranked 14th in the latest Class AAA prep polls, are also having one of their most successful seasons in school history, however, and Friday’s setback isn’t going to take away from the team’s confidence moving forward.

“You just tell them it’s one game,” Dennis said. “We’ve had a fantastic season, we’re still on pace to have one of the best years in New Ulm boys basketball history. It’s one game.

“And we reminded them of last year, 358 days ago, Jackson County Central came in here and they beat us on our floor, and it felt like garbage. But we took that to heart, we realized once again that we absolutely hate losing, and we decided that that was going to be the last time for a while. I think that tonight, we have that feeling in our belly and we’ve got to do something about that.”

After last year’s loss to JCC on Feb. 24, the Eagles won the last three games of the regular season and two playoff games before falling to Mankato East 77-68 in the Section 2AAA finals.

New Ulm has three games left of the regular season and will take on Kasson-Mantorville at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in in Kasson.