Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Joey Wise takes the ball into the paint and looks for a chance to score during a Big South Conference boys basketball game against Marshall on Tuesday night at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — The New Ulm Eagles had a tough time in the paint on both ends of the floor Tuesday night as Marshall Tigers sophomore Oliver Voigt posted a double-double to lead the Tigers to a 75-64 win in a Big South Conference boys basketball game.

It was the season opener for both teams.

Despite some hiccups at the foul line, including missing his last five shots from the charity stripe to close out the first half, Voigt was dominant under the basket early on as he led all players with 14 points at the half. The 6-7 forward finished with a game-high 22 points and 20 rebounds.

“He’s still growing,” Marshall head coach Travis Carroll said. “There’s stretches where we had some nice runs for some stretches and there’s some stretches where we need to get the rebound, come to a jump stop, that comes with time and experience. It was good he was able to have some experience as a ninth-grader going into his 10th-grade year. First game, there are some flashes, but there’s also some things that definitely need to button up. Not just for him, but for the rest of the kids.”

Andrew Lee added 17 points for the Tigers, while Noah Pieper added 10 points.

The Eagles, who were outrebounded 45-24 in the game, struggled to find their shot and had trouble defending the paint. They got a late surge of offense in the first half to keep things manageable, however, led by Joey Wise and Noah Mertz.

After free throws from Voigt had Marshall up 30-17 with 5:30 left in the first half, Wise found Mertz inside for 2 and a putback bucket by Mertz made it a 30-21 game. An and-one by Wise had New Ulm down 30-24, but Carson Mensink stole a rebound away from the New Ulm defense and put it back up in the paint for a bucket and 32-24 Marshall lead at the half.

While Mitchell Hopp and Levi Hopp led the Eagles with 15 and 13 points, respectively, Wise finished with 12 points and created a few turnovers with his extra efforts on defense.

The second half wasn’t kind to the Eagles as the Tigers pushed their lead to 59-39 following an and-one by Lee. That capped off an 8-0 Marshall run.

New life came for the Eagles when baskets from Mitchell Hopp, Wise, another from Mitchell Hopp and a pair of free throws from Marquise Poncelet had the Eagles down 60-47 moments later.

“It was just hustling, doing the little things, getting back on D, picking each other up, doing the little things,” Wise said of New Ulm’s late rally.

A steal for a layup by Wise had the Eagles down 66-55 and a 3 from Wise had the Eagles down 71-62 in the final minute, but it was too late for the Eagles as the Tigers held on.

“We can take away that we learned something,” Wise said. “We’ve just got to get a body on somebody, get those boards and just play with more energy, that’s the biggest thing.”

New Ulm started the game forcing an early Marshall timeout after a 3 from Zach Hubbard put the Eagles up 7-4. But a 13-0 Marshall run followed that out of the timeout for a 17-7 lead. The run started with a layup from Brody Riess and featured an and-one by Aiden Bly and two buckets apiece from Lee and Voigt.

Carroll said his team has some things to work on, but he was happy overall with the offense.

“We were able to get some paint touches and action to the rim in the second half and by doing that, that kind of opens up some things on the perimeter,” Carroll said. “We do have some guys in the paint that can do some things in the paint, but we do have some guys on the perimeter that can knock down some shots.

“We lost a great group last year and are still working through what our team is right now. … New Ulm has a strong team. Their perimeter play is outstanding and they’re going to continue to improve throughout the season and when we see them come January, they’ll be a much-improved team and hopefully we can improve as we work into the season as well.”

New Ulm is at Waseca on Friday, while Marshall is at St. Cloud Tech on Friday.