With the win, the Cougars (26-2) clinched their third consecutive trip to the state tournament.

The Cougars had four players in double figures, led by Dwayne Bryant’s 19 points. Carson Schweim had 15 points, while Amani Nobles had 12 and Lucas Gustafson added 11.

Colton Benson led the Eagles (21-8) with 28 points, while Will Fossen chipped in 8.

The Cougars defeated New Ulm in the 2022 section finals and Worthington in 2023 to advance to state.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Colton Benson (24) goes up for a shot while guarded by Mankato East’s Carson Schweim (14) in the Section 2AAA boys basketball title game Thursday at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. Benson and Schweim will both play together with the Minnesota State Mavericks next winter.

The Eagles were looking for redemption from 2022, however, and they looked in good position to get that with a strong start to Thursday’s game.

Benson knocked down three consecutive 3s early on to give New Ulm a 14-9 lead before he was fouled attempting another 3. He sank two of the three free throws to put New Ulm up 16-9.

East went on a 9-0 run late in the half, however, to lead 26-23. Benson got an and-one to tie the game up at 26-all, but the Cougars got a corner 3 from Gustafson to take a 29-26 lead into the half.

“With every possession, we just wanted to make sure we took a good shot,” Eagles head coach Matt Dennis said. “First half we were tough, knocked down some big ones, lot of excitement, crowd into it, that played into our favor. I was so proud of our city for coming down and cheering us on. It was full-force New Ulm in those stands tonight. I thought we worked well together, and I’m proud of our guys.”

The Cougars took an early second-half lead, 35-28, but Jensen drove inside and hit Fossen on the wing with a pass for a corner 3 to have New Ulm down 35-31. Benson then was fouled again from beyond the arc and this time hit all three free throws to have it a 1-point game, 35-34.

While one of the shortest players on the court at 5-foot-10, Bryant made some big shots for the Cougars in the second half, with one being a fast-break bucket to put his team up 44-34. The Eagles cut the deficit to 44-40, but that was as close as they got as the Cougars grew their lead again to double digits.

A pair of 3s from Bryant and Gustafson with less than five minutes to go had the Cougars up 62-43. Another Gustafson 3 gave the Cougars their largest lead of the night at 65-43.

For a pair of high-scoring teams, both New Ulm and East made it tough to score on each other. The Eagles had a season low in points scored Thursday, while East’s season low came in the regular season to Mankato West on Feb. 20, a 59-58 loss.

Heading into Thursday’s game, New Ulm led the section in points per game with 83.6 ppg, while East was a close second with 80.8 ppg.

“We planned to win and we planned to win ugly,” Dennis said. “Just playing defense and grinding. We planned to take them out of their offensive sets, they planned to take us out of our offensive sets. So I think as good of offenses as these teams have, I think their defenses can step up and play a lot of physical defense at the same time, and I think we saw that tonight from both sides.”

While the season didn’t end the way they envisioned it, the Eagles were able to represent New Ulm in a section title game for the second time in three years, something Dennis was very proud of.

“I’m so proud of our boys,” Dennis said. “These guys, the seniors especially here, have really made New Ulm basketball mean something. We know how close the game was, nothing else really matters at this point. But I’m so proud of our guys, all the way, one through 12, but especially our seniors. They got to this game two times out of three times when New Ulm hadn’t been in this game for decades.”