NEW ULM — The last time the New Ulm Eagles boys basketball team played Tri-City United they came away with an 88-52 win.

Monday night the Eagles got another win and by almost the same score.

Owen Castleman scored 18 points, with Mitchell Hopp adding 16 and Zach Hubbard 12 in an 86-52 win over the Titans in a Big South Conference game.

Jaylen Nhem led Tri-City (0-17, 0-10) with a game-high 22 points.

For New Ulm head coach Michael Poncelet, it was a game where he felt that his team had some ups and downs but played very well.

“The final score showed that,” Poncelet said. “But it did not feel that the way we started the second half that we came out with a lot of energy. We had an opportunity to put the foot on the gas — it took us a little while but eventually we got going and our bench did a nice job.”

The Eagles (11-10, 6-6) held a 50-33 lead at halftime before New Ulm, which hosts Delano Tuesday, put their best run of the game together with an 18-2 spurt that had the Eagles comfortably in front at 77-45.

Lendale Dunmars sparked that run that saw Owen Castleman score four straight baskets before he canned a 3 and then added a basket off of a Titans turnover for that 32-point lead.

“We were able to play a lot of players tonight,” Poncelet said. “I told the players tonight that I was planning on rotating 11 players tonight — we have a three-game week [Delano at home Tuesday and at Mankato West Friday] and each game gets a little bit bigger as we go on.”

Baskets by Miles Castleman, Noah Mertz and Parker Ranweiler had the Eagles up 86-50.

“I am a believer in fresh legs and we did go deeper than 11 tonight at the end,” he said. “I wanted to make sure that we had fresh legs for Delano — they are a good team. And then we have that big game at the end of the week against West is going to have major implications for the section.”