“We kind of realized that we weren’t doing amazing and it wasn’t our night with our press,” New Ulm’s Maggie Joyce said. “We pulled it back, figured out our defense and then we cleaned it up again and put on the pressure.”

The Eagles made some adjustments to their defense in the second half, switching on screens and playing back on the fast-paced Tigers offense.

“At halftime we talked about making some adjustments to their offense by switching some screens, which made a big difference,” New Ulm head coach Mitch Lewis said. “They weren’t getting their cuts to the hoop. That kind of took away their easy buckets.”

Brooklyn Lewis led the Eagles with 24 points and nine rebounds, while Joyce had 18 points and five rebounds. The two combined to score the first 20 points of the game for New Ulm, and no other Eagle had more than 6 points.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Leah Brustad goes up for a shot during a nonconfernece girls basketball game against Hutchinson Friday at New Ulm High School.

“We’ve had a lot of girls sick this past week, so we’re struggling through that a little bit,” coach Lewis said. “But those two, we give them a lot of freedom to do what they need to score, and they took advantage of it tonight. They found weaknesses, and their shooting was on.”

New Ulm started the game up 17-9, with Lewis scoring 10 and Joyce adding 7, but Hutchinson struck back with 3s from Lydia Wollan and Shania Kuhnau and another layup from Kuhnau to tie the game at 17. Brooklyn Lewis made three of four free throws to take the lead once more, and the Eagles had its first basket from a third player as Jordan Boettger made a layup for a 22-17 lead with 3:25 to play. The Eagles added layups from Leah Brustad and Joyce to maintain a 26-20 lead, then closed out the half with a mid-range jumper from Brooklyn Lewis to go up 28-20.

Hutchinson came out of the gate hot in the second half, going on a quick 4-0 run, but New Ulm stabilized with a putback from Brustad. Hutchinson continued to fight, with a layup from Emelia Thode making it a 34-31 game.

But New Ulm’s adjustments kicked in, leading to a 9-0 run.

“We just became more aggressive,” Joyce said. “Our first half was slow and sloppy, so we definitely cleaned that up and found the good passes.”

Brooklyn Lewis made a 3, followed by a transition layup from Joyce. Brooklyn Lewis added a mid-range shot, and Riley Wilson closed out the run with a pair of free throws.

Hutchinson called a timeout with 7:55 to play down 43-31, but the Tigers never got the lead closer than 6 from that point on. Despite Hutchinson scoring 8 points in quick succession, Brooklyn Lewis was able to interrupt with a layup on a cut to keep the Tigers at arms length. New Ulm closed out the game with a 7-2 run, started with a layup from Brustand and ended by a pair of free throws by Joyce, to extend the lead to a 52-41 final score.

New Ulm (7-2) plays at Mankato East on Monday.