Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm High School’s Nate Firle finishes at the rim during a Section 2AAA semifinals game with Worthington on Saturday night at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.

ST. PETER — Despite holding the lead for most of the first half, second-seeded New Ulm fell to third-seeded Worthington 65-49 in a Section 2AAA boys basketball semifinals game Saturday night at Gustavus Adolphus College.

With a slim lead at the half, Worthington outscored New Ulm 35-21 in the second half.

“Credit to Worthington,” New Ulm head coach Matt Dennis said. “They came out and played a great defensive game, made it really tough to score. I was proud of our defensive effort. We took some gambles at the end, we took some chances because we were down and we had to. They capitalized on it — it went their way, not our way. They had a nice defense set up and we couldn’t counter it.”

Colton Benson led the Eagles with 20 points, while James Osborne added 10 points. Nate Firle scored 8 points as well for New Ulm.

Worthington was led by Kaleb Knothe, who scored 11 points in the second half to finish with a team-high 13.

The game was close throughout the first half, with New Ulm holding onto a one- or two-score lead for much of it. New Ulm’s biggest lead came on a post score from Benson to put the Eagles up 22-16, causing Worthington to call a timeout with 5:09 left in the half. After that, Worthington went on a 14-6 run, capturing the lead with a 3 by Zach Hayenga with the final score of the half, 30-28.

Worthington never trailed again in the game, and with a 38-37 lead, they went on a 9-2 run to go up 47-39. The Trojans began draining the clock, and New Ulm made the decision to pull Firle, who had several key blocks in the game, in favor of better perimeter defenders.

“We had to because they were going to spread us out,” Dennis said. “Nate’s a great player for us, but his strong suit is not guarding 35 feet from the rim, it’s guarding six feet from the rim. So when we’re down, it’s really tough to keep him in and still get the ball pressure that we need.”

Worthington had no trouble against New Ulm’s press defense and extended their lead in the closing minutes, sealing the victory.

Worthington played box-and-one defense against Benson for large parts of the game.

“We try to put him in different spots and try to open things up,” Dennis said. “The shots just didn’t fall. We weren’t finishing how we normally do at the rim. Things happen.”

New Ulm finishes their season with a 21-5 overall record.

Worthington will now take on Mankato East in the Section 2AAA title game Thursday night at Gustavus.