Knights outrun Cathedral

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Basketball is a game of scoring runs.

Monday night was a prime example.

New Ulm Cathedral outscored Sleepy Eye St. Mary's 24-8 in the the fourth quarter. But it was not enough to overcome a 22-4 Knights' run at the end of the second quarter and the start of the third quarter as St. Mary's topped the Greyhounds 73-57 in Tomahawk Conference boys basketball.

Kyle Ludewig led four Knights (7-1, 3-0) in double figures with 18. Matt Mathiowetz and Matt Gangelhoff each netted 17 with Raul Martinez contributing 10.

Eric Schugel paced the Greyhounds (2-1, 4-3) with a game-high 22 points.

"I am a little disappointed in the loss," Cathedral coach Bailey Blethen said. "I thought that we could sustain the effort that we had in the first half, but we were not able to do it."

That effort saw the Greyhounds battle the Knights even for the first quarter and a half, knotting the game at 23-23 on a Schugel basket with three minutes left in the second quarter.

But Matt Gangelhoff's trey -- one of three for the junior -- sparked a 17-4 run to end the second quarter and gave the Knights a 40-27 lead at halftime.

'This was a game of ups and downs," Knights' coach Peter Roufs said. "We came out early and our defensive intensity was not good, and Cathedral took advantage of that and scored often.

"But after we picked up our defensive intensity, we forced some turnovers (eight in the second quarter by the Greyhounds) and we got some points off of that," he said. "We did not have a lot of ball pressure (early) and they ran their offense at will."

Blethen said that he was not sure of what happened in the mid-game run by the Knights.

"There were some misplays on our part," he said. "That run was made up of a couple of things -- we had those misplays, but St. Mary's made some great plays. We had some missed shots (0-for-8 from the field) and some steals. I don't think that it was one item. We did not make our shots.''

St. Mary's hit on six-of-nine from the field and two-of-three from beyond the arc. For the game, the Knights shot a sizzling 68 percent from the field.

Leading 40-27 going into the third quarter, the Knights used a 3-pointer sandwiched between baskets from Raul Martinez and Mathiowetz to take a commanding 47-27 lead with three minutes gone in the third quarter.

That lead swelled to 59-29 as Ludewig, Mathiowetz and Martinez canned hoops, with Cody Fox netting the only points in that span with two free throws. Schugel then buried the first of his two 3-pointers, cutting the Knight lead to 59-32 going into the final quarter.

But that basket would be the beginning of a Cathedral run that saw the Greyhounds rise up from the ashes. The Greyhounds outscored St. Mary's 18-7 in the first five minutes of the final quarter to pull to within 66-52. Adam Neubauer, Fox and Schugel sparked the run.

"I think that that was part of my fault; it was poor coaching on my part with the substitutions," Roufs said. "I did not have a point guard out there -- it was a poor substitution pattern on my part. They made their run -- we did not take care of the basketball."

Blethen felt that the comeback by his team was no surprise.

"Eric (Schugel) had a nice game," he said. "But we got outrebounded by 10 and they shot 68 percent. Those were the key stats on the game. I was happy with the way that they worked tonight. They hung in there."

St. Mary's travels to Minnesota Valley Lutheran on Thursday while the Greyhounds go to McLeod West Thursday before going to MVL Saturday night.

The Cathedral "B" team lost 62-37. Andrew Woitas led the Knights with 15, and Alan Woitas adding 11.

Michael Schwarz led the Greyhounds with 10 points.

SESM 16 24 19 14 -- 73

CATHEDRAL 17 10 5 25 -- 57

SESM (73): Ludewig 18, Mathiowetz 17, Gangelhoff 17, Martinez 10, Andrew Woitas 3, Huiras 3, Moldan 2, Biesanz 1, Wahl 1, Millard 1.

CATHEDRAL (57): Schugel 22, Hazuka 11, Fox 8, Neubauer 8, Lux 7, Schwarz 1.