New Ulm Cathedral head boys basketball coach Zach Kaiser said that Tuesday’s Tomahawk Division 68-49 loss to Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s was a tough loss.

“St. Mary’s is a good team,” said Kaiser, who saw his team fall to 5-9 overall and 4- 6 in conference play. “We had them in the first half — we were in a good position (but) we let them hit a couple of 3s just before halftime when we were trying to hold the ball. That swung momentum back in their favor.

“And in the second half they just locked down on defense — made things tough for us — and we could not stick with them in the second half. They are great one-on-one defenders and help defenders so trying to take them one-on-one is tough and trying to take them one on one and draw help and find another option is also tough too because they rotate so well and get back to the player that they are defending so quickly.”

Kaiser said that the Greyhounds took care of the ball well Tuesday.

“We did a pretty good job of limiting our live-ball turnovers and I was pleased with the way we took care of the ball.”

Kaiser said that the Knights shut down Greyhounds top scorer Eli Anderson especially in the second half.

“I am sure that was their plan,” Kaiser said. “He shot well in the first half — he got to the basket and I think that Eli had less than 10 points in the second half. He ended up with 28 points but they did a good job of loading to his side of the floor and bringing extra guys to stop him from driving when he wanted to drive in the second half.”

Cathedral heads to Northrop to take on Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther on Thursday.

“They are like us and not super big, but I am confident that in just the way we have been playing defense lately.”