Quinten Forst provided that extra leadership with a career-high 21 points and eight rebounds, helping Cathedral earn a 71-60 win over the Cedar Mountain Cougars in a Tomahawk Division boys basketball game.

“We come here every day and we’re expected to do good,” Forst said. “On and off the court, we just do good. Get those shots up and it translates. Just getting shots up outside really helps with that.”

The Greyhounds hit 13 shots from beyond the arc in the game, led by Anderson’s five 3s on seven attempts. Anderson ended up leading the Greyhounds with a game-high 31 points.

Forst was an inside-outside presence for the Greyhounds also, however, knocking down a pair of 3s in the second half. His second one came in crunch time with less than two minutes left to end a 7-0 Cougars run and put the Greyhounds up double digits.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Cedar Mountain’s Thomas Dahmes (2) goes up for a layup during a Tomahawk Division boys basketball game against New Ulm Cathedral on Tuesday at Cathedral High School.

“It’s so expressed in today’s game that bigs can shoot the ball,” Forst said. “And the ability to stretch, it just gets me open for my teammates. The ability to pass it, it makes the game so much easier and obviously, once you make one, you’re going to want to shoot another and once you keep making those, you just don’t want to stop shooting them.”

Ryler Collins added 9 points on 3-of-7 shooting from the 3-point line and had five rebounds.

The Cougars got a strong effort out of Thomas Dahmes as the forward finished with a team-high 24 points. Jackson Guetter added 14 points for the Cougars, while Carson Schiller scored 12.

The Greyhounds got their 3 to drop early on, getting two from Anderson and a corner 3 from Logan Goblirsch to take an 11-1 lead and force a Cedar Mountain timeout with 14:22 left in the opening half.

Collins’ corner 3 minutes later gave the Greyhounds a 15-point lead, 26-11, but the Cougars went on a 9-0 run to cut their deficit to 26-20. Yzykiel Rendon started the run with a bucket inside before back-to-back baskets in the paint from Dahmes and a long 3 by Schiller finished the run.

Moments later, Dahmes had a steal and behind-the-back bounce pass to Schiller for a fast-break layup.

Turnovers and fouls piled up on the Greyhounds near the end of the first half and things didn’t get much better for them in the second half, allowing the Cougars to hang around. A pair of free throws by Forst and a layup seconds before the half by Anderson had Cathedral up 37-26.

Cathedral had the first six fouls of the second half but were able to keep the Cougars from getting closer than 9 points, thanks in large part to the strong start offensively and 11-0 run midway through the second half to put the Greyhounds up 58-40.

“The fact that when you knock down shots early in the game, it softens up the defense and they have to respect shooters,” Cathedral head coach Zach Kaiser said. “Then you can go to your next option, which is a dribble-drive or you get a post touch. Shooting cures a lot of things. If you’re able to make shots, you’re able to open opportunities. I’m proud of the guys for the decisions that we made for most of the game when it came to our half-court offense.”

The Cougars stuck with it after falling behind 18, however, drawing fouls and getting takeaways for points. After a putback bucket by Dahmes, Guetter had a steal for a layup to have his team down 65-55 with two minutes left. Guetter had another steal on a pass and was fouled to go into a double bonus, knocking down the back end of two free throws to have the Cougars down 65-56.

Forst knocked down a big 3 from the corner to end Cedar Mountain’s late run, however, and added another free throw in the final 30 seconds to help the Greyhounds hold on.

“I made him a captain, kind of challenging him to step up into what the ideals I think a captain should have, which is on-the-court and off-the-court leadership,” Kaiser said of Forst. “His off-the-court leadership has been great this year and his on-the-court, just being able to take over games at times has been a really big plus for us. He played JV last year, so he was new to varsity this year. We know he’s athletic, and we know that he is talented, and sometimes it just takes a while to translate to the varsity level. …

“Obviously we have relied on Eli Anderson a lot this year, and it’s always nice when you can have a one-two punch instead of just that one punch. Anything he can do to help us, it’s just relieving Eli of maybe feeling some pressure, but then it’s also relieving everybody else.”

Cathedral (3-6, 3-3) hosts Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop on Friday night in Tomahawk action, while Cedar Mountain (1-6, 1-5) hosts Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther in a Tomahawk-Valley Conference crossover game on Thursday night.