Lewis scored 31 and added six assists and six steals, while Brustad and Joyce both hit career highs, with Brustad scoring 29 with five rebounds and Joyce scoring 24 with six rebounds.

“I think my teammates really helped me out there,” Brustad said. “Hitting the back-doors and stuff, making it possible for me to even score that much. Gotta give it all to my teammates.”

Joyce said the team was able to have so much success on offense because they were sharing the ball.

“Offensively, I’ say we were moving the ball well,” she said. “Looking for open cutters and making the right passes. Everyone was finishing strong for sure, so that helped us.”

Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Leah Brustad (1) goes up for a layup during a Big South Conference girls basketball game agianst Waseca Friday at New Ulm High School.

Riley Wilson also added 10 points and six rebounds for the Eagles.

While New Ulm got out to a big lead in the first half, going up 52-30, the team settled down even more in the second half to outscore the Bluejays 49-26, despite 10 minutes of running time and six minutes with reserves in the game.

“I think we just made sure to not stop working hard,” Joyce said. “We stepped up on defense and made passes on offense.”

New Ulm scored 12 of the first 14 points of the game, with Brustad scoring a layup for a 12-2 lead. Joyce had an and-one and a pair of layups to extend the lead to 24-7, and Lewis had a behind-the-back pass to Joyce for another layup and a 27-9 lead. Waseca fought back to a 33-18 lead, with New Ulm calling a timeout, but the Eagles went on a 8-1 run, with Brustad scoring 4, to take a 41-19 lead. Waseca again made an effort to cut the lead back to 48-30, but New Ulm finished off the half with a putback from Brustad and a driving layup by Lewis to make it it a 52-30 game.

A 3-pointer from Joyce and a transition layup from Brustad made it a 66-36 game after the break, then Lewis caught fire, making six shots and three free throws to score 16 points without missing a shot from the floor.

“It was definitely once I saw my teammates get going and the energy got up and we were all having fun,” Lewis said. “It kind of gets me going when we all have fun when we’re out there together.”

Lewis scored 6 New Ulm points uninterrupted with three layups to give the Eagles a 76-40 lead, then hit a 3-pointer for a 79-46 lead. Waseca began to make a few 3s of its own, but Lewis made two more layups to make it a 90-48 game. A putback from Wilson and a mid-range shot from Lewis kept the Bluejays at bay, and a transition layup from Wilson got the lead out to 96-52 as New Ulm called a timeout.

New Ulm’s short bench entered the game with 6:30 to play, with Brustad adding 4 more points, including a layup for the 100th and 101st points for the Eagles.

New Ulm (2-1, 1-1) play at Tri-City United on Tuesday.