But it was their 7-0 run in the last minute of the game that gave them the win.

GFW made seven of their eight free throws in that span of time to erase a 49-48 deficit and go on to a 55-54 win over the Greyhounds Friday night.

Cole Jacobson led the Firebirds (5-4, 3-1) with 20 points. Kaden Rieke added 13 and Matthew Lee 12.

Eli Anderson paced the Greyhounds (3-7, 3-4) with a game-high 27 points. Quinten Forst ended with 10.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Ryler Collins dribbles the ball to the hoop while guarded by Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop’s Luke Bastian during a Tomahawk Divison boys basketball game on Friday at Cathedral High School.

“I was proud of the effort tonight,” Cathedral head coach Zach Kaiser said. “We executed our defensive game plan really well, which was to deny [Cole] Jacobson the ball and when he did get the ball, we wanted to load to the driving lane and make him take really tough shots.

“We rebounded well with them, but it is a tough one to lose.”

GFW head coach Ryan Jacobson said it was a hard-fought battle by both teams.

“They are a well-coached team,” he said. “They play really hard and we were fortunate that we made enough fre throws down the stretch to hang on.”

But late-game free throws by the Firebirds to win seemed unlikely midway through the first half.

Trailing Cathedral 14-8, GFW scored 17 straight points to take a 25-14 lead before Ryler Collins sank a 3 at the buzzer for the Greyhounds.

“We started to turn the ball over,” Kaiser said. “We did a good job in the half court, but we gave them too many transition opportunities. They were doing a good job trying to contain Eli (7 points in the first half) and we were not moving enough offensively — we were not cutting and taking advantage of their attention on Eli.”

Coach Jacobson said that he told his players at halftime that — like his run in the first half — that basketball is a game of runs.

“And on their home floor, they are going to make a run and we have to do our best to minimize that and make a run of our own,” he said.

The Greyhounds, who host Springfield on Tuesday, began a run with just over 12 minutes left in the game,

Down 36-28, Cathedral pulled to within 36-34 on a Forst basket at the 11:42 mark.

The Greyhounds then took their first lead of the game at 42-40 on an Anderson drive to the basket.

GFW retook the lead at 46-44 on two Cole Jacobson charity shots before a 3 from Logan Goblirsch and Anderson’s jumper had the Greyhounds up 49-48 with 1:05 to go in the game.

That was when the free throws from the Firebirds closed out the win for GFW with Cole Jacobson making a free throw for a 55-51 lead and it was a big one as Anderson banked home a 3 at the buzzer.

“Eli is a tough player,” Coach Jacobson said. “He got it going there and big players do that and tonight we made just enough free throws for the win.”

Kaiser said he was happy that his team did not quit.

“We took the lead at one time — we did not get down on ourselves,” Kaiser said. “We made some runs of our own.”

The Firebirds host Wabasso next Tuesday.