Photo by Brady Dennis New Ulm’s Jayden Broste drives to the hoop during a nonconference boys basketball game against Delano on Tuesday night at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — In the first half of their game with New Ulm, the Delano Tigers made 10 of 16 shots from beyond the arc for a 43-34 lead at halftime.

In the second half, the Tigers made just 4 of 8 from the 3-point line but all four of them came at the right time as Delano topped the Eagles 83-68 Tuesday in a nonconference boys basketball game.

Bjorn Stewart led the Tigers (10-11) with 21 points. Nate Nielsen added 19 and Elijah Engesser 18.

Mitchell Hopp and Joey Wise each scored 13 for New Ulm, now 11-11.

“They shot the lights out in the first half,” New Ulm head coach Michael Poncelet said. “And we did not put up a loft of resistance either — they got wide-open shots anytime they wanted to. They shot the ball well, but I do not know that a lot of those shots were contested.”

The Eagles, who play at Mankato West on Friday, cut the early Tigers lead to 15-11 before Engesser canned two 3s sandwiched around two Delano free throws.

New Ulm pulled to within 23-15 on a Wise basket before the Tigers hit 4 of 7 from long range for a 37-20 lead.

“Good varsity teams should be able to knock down wide open shots,” Poncelet said.

Delano mounted a 57-44 lead before the Eagles made a comeback, cutting the Tigers lead to 57-54 on a Mitchell Hopp’s 3 with 9:10 left in the game.

But Delano outscored New Ulm 15-4 to regain momentum and a 72-58 lead.

“You look at the energy that we expelled to get back into the game and it just was not enough,” Poncelet said.

And while the Eagles made just five 3s in the game, it was their inability to make the easy shots that hurt even more.

“That did not help and I told the guys after the game that we got to the rim anytime we wanted to early on,” he said. “But we were not there picking each other up. We talk about the team aspect of it — we do not do that well enough right now so it is easy for us to get into that mental funk where we miss one and now we feel sorry for ourselves.

“But now we have to get our minds right to play West on Friday which now has less significance (in the section). This was a pretty bad loss.”