Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Jake Finstad attacks the basket during a Section 2A boys basketball playoff game at Cathedral High School on Friday night.

NEW ULM — New Ulm Cathedral used a 43-point second half to shake off a shaky first half as the Greyhounds downed Cleveland 72-59 Friday in a Section 2A, North Subsection opening-round game.

Jake Finstad led the Greyhounds (15-12) with a game-high 21 points.Jevan Wilfahrt added 17 and Isaac Miller contributed 12.

Carter Barto led Cleveland, who ends their season at 11-15, with 17 points.

Cathedral now travels to tangle with No. 1-seeded Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s at 8:01 p.m. Tuesday.

“When the calendar flips to March — it is the best time of the year — and you are going to have to win games in different ways,” Cathedral head coach Alan Woitas said. “And the first half defensively we were really good (holding the Clippers to 21 points). We played with great effort and energy.”

The Greyhounds jumped to a 17-7 lead off of baskets from Wilfahrt, Miller and a 3 from Colin Anderson at the 5:53 mark.

Treys from the Clippers’ Blake Lyons and Bode Bartell got Cleveland back to within 17-13.

An Elliott Hoffman basket, followed up by a 3-pointer 8 seconds later by the 6-foot-3 senior gave Cathedral a 26-18 lead before Finstad found all net on a 3 for a 29-21 halftime lead.

Finstad hit his second 3 of the game to start the second half that sparked the Greyhounds to a 16-6 run.

Two baskets from Wilfahrt, a conventional 3-point basket from Miller preceded a 3 from Zach Gieseke. He followed that up with a steal and a basket for a 45-27 lead at the 10:30 mark.

“Different people made plays — Zach a great second half (13 points). He made some shots and attacked the hoop,” Woitas said.

Cleveland tried to get back into the game using the 3-point shot as they cut the lead to 45-33 on 3s from Brennan Korteum and Bartell, but the Clippers missed the first nine from beyond the arc prior to that.

A Wilfahrt trey made it 58-38 before two free throws from Lyons cut the Cathedral up 63-53 with just over two minutes left.

But the Greyhounds closed out the game on a 9-6 run.

“Jake and Jevan played exceptionally hard tonight,” Woitas said. “They both do a lot of really good things on the basketball court.”

Woitas and the Greyhounds now set their sites on the 19-7 Knights.

“They are a really good team — they can beat you in a lot of different ways — and we are going to have a battle Tuesday night,” Woitas said. “But we are excited about the opportunity. We feel internally that the teams one through eight in this subsection, that everybody is relatively the same. You better show up or otherwise you are going to get beat and if you put a complete game together you get to play another one.”