MVL tops CHS with late rally

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- It is rare, when the Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers and the New Ulm Cathedral boy's basketball teams meet for the first time in early January, that both squads are below the .500 mark and each team is grasping for their fourth win of the season.

Saturday night, the MVL Chargers outscored Cathedral 16-3 midway through the fourth quarter to come away with win number four as they topped the Hounds 82-69.

Jake Firle led five Chargers in double figures with 21 points. Andrew Beilke and Dustin Lange each netted 12 with Nathan Nass and Karl Struck each contributing 10.

Tom Hazuka paced Cathedral (3-5) with a game-high 23 points. Sophomore Eric Schugel added 10.

"This was a nice win for us," said Charger coach Craig Morgan. "With the (Bethany Holiday) Tournament they showed a lot of improvement and in practice -- we have gotten on a mini-roll and are playing together now."

Cathedral coach Bailey Blethen said that his team was "disappointed in the loss. But I thought that the effort that our kids made was terrific tonight. We had some turnovers (19 in the game but only six in the second half) and Jake Firle is one of the best players in the (Tomahawk) Conference. He is an excellent player and is tough for anyone to stop. And MVL is a well-coached team."

The Hounds, who would see MVL hold a 19-point lead early in the third quarter at 50-31 on an Andrew Beilke lay-up, whittled that lead to 60-51 at the end of the third quarter on a trey from Tom Hazuka (one of five 3-balls in the game for the senior) and an Eric Schugel jumper with 10 seconds left.

"We had given some players some rest (at the end of the third quarter) with that big lead," said Morgan. "And I put some players in -- they have to learn to play with some pressure. That gives our subs better. I told the players after the game that they are really making it hard for me to sub guys because of that."

"I was happy with the way that we came back -- we were happy with the effort in the third quarter," said Blethen. "We tried to go back to our full-court pressure and that didn't make much difference. I don't know if we were tired. We were disappointed. I think that we can give them a better game over at MVL."

The Chargers, who will host Buffalo Lake-Hector Tuesday night, trailed only once in the contest at 9-8 after Dusty Wilfahrt stole the ball for an easy lay-up.

But MVL regained the lead on baskets from Dustin Lange and Andrew Beilke -- they would never trail in the game again.

Joey Lux's basket pulled the Hounds to within 19-17 to start the second quarter before MVL -- with the assist of six Cathedral turnovers -- took a 42-23 lead with eight of the last 10 points in that 25-6 spurt coming off of defensive pressure by the Chargers.,

"Our defense -- in our early games -- did not trust each other," Morgan commented. "And it takes a while to get used to trusting one another and right now, our defense is trusting each other and playing better together. Good things happen."

Morgan felt that forcing turnovers at Cathedral was huge. "It is important when we play here at Cathedral," he said."The crowd really gets loud -- the fans get into the game. If you can get a lead here, it is big."

But the Cathedral crowd got into the game late in the third quarter when, spurred by a Hazuka trey, outscored MVL 17-10 to close out the third quarter.

Two Cody Fox free throws and consecutive baskets by Eric Schugel and a Joey Lux bucket saw the lead shrink and two more treys from Hazuka and a Schugel bucket pulled the Hounds to within that nine point margin before the Chargers recharged.

"I was happy with the five players in double figures," said Morgan. "That was something that we were shooting for -- we have gotten better passing from everybody."

'I think that we if we had a few less turnovers and more rebounds it would have been a different game,' said Blethen who will take his team to Sleepy Eye Tuesday night. "But I am happy with our kids effort especially when we came back. And Tom Hazuka has been a leader for us all season -- Dusty Wilfahrt gave great effort on defense. I have never had a kid play that hard on defense all of the time."

MVL also won the B squad game 61-54. David Petersen led MVL with 19 while Ryan Bauer paced Cathedral with 14.

MVL 19 25 16 22--82

CATHEDRAL 15 14 22 18--69

MVL (82): Firle 21, Lange 12, Beilke 12, Nass 10, Struck 10, Harpestad 6, Shoop 3, Petersen 3, Lendt 2, Holzhueter 2, Thiesfeldt 2, Polzin 2.

CATHEDRAL (69): T. Hazuka 23, Schugel 10, J. Hazuka 7, Neubauer 7, Wilfahrt 6, Schreiber 6, Lux 5, Hoffmann 3, Fox 2.