Chargers stop NUC cold

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- When New Ulm Cathedral's Cody Fox canned a basket near the midway portion of the second quarter, the Greyhounds were hanging tough with cross-town rival Minnesota Valley Lutheran.

But Hazuka's basket was the last field goal that Cathedral would make until Joey Lux hit a jumper to close out the first half. But by that time, the Chargers had built a 44-27 lead and went on to stop Cathedral 70-57 Saturday night in Tomahawk Conference basketball.

Nate Nass led the Chargers (4-1, 7-1) with a game high 24 points. Dustin Lendt added 14.

Joe Hazuka was Cathedral's top scorer with 13 points. Adam Neubauer tossed in 11 and Joey Lux 10 for the Greyhounds, now 2-3 in the Tomahawk Conference and 4-5 overall.

"We came out pretty strong, and they did also," MVL coach Craig Morgan said. "There was a good pace in the first quarter."

It was a good pace by both teams early as the Greyhounds shot well and held leads of 13-12 and 15-14 on baskets courtesy of Adam Hoffmann and Joey Lux respectively.

But a Nate Nass jumper lifted the Chargers to a 16-15 lead late in the first quarter. It was a quarter dominated by Nass, who scored 12 of the first 16 MVL points.

"Nate has been playing really well for us," Morgan said. "He hits his shots -- he did that the other night against Sleepy Eye St. Mary's."

Nass jumper moved the Chargers into a 22-18 lead before two free throws from Neubauer pulled the Greyhounds to within 22-20 after the first quarter.

Hazuka's trey to begin the second quarter moved Cathedral into a 23-22 lead before MVL tied then inched ahead at 28-25 before Fox's basket.

But for the rest of the quarter Cathedral went cold, missing their next seven shots from the field.

And the Chargers took advantage of that cold spell, increasing that one point lead into a 17 point lead near the end of the first half as MVL went on a 16-0 run.

"I would like to think that our defense had a lot to do with that," Charger coach Craig Morgan said. "It takes a lot of energy to play that type of style. I think that we pressured them a lot in that quarter."

Cathedral coach Bailey Blethen felt that the Chargers defense was tough.

"They are a good team and they played good defense against us," he said. "But I did not think that the defense was the key -- we did not rebound well in the first half. By halftime, they had 16 rebounds and we only had five. I think that if we had stayed with them on the boards, we could have stayed with them on the scoreboard."

Cathedral's cold shooting continued in the third quarter as they could manage just one field goal in the third quarter, that coming from Lux.

"We had gotten the shots that we wanted and our zone was working alright," Blethen said. "But we just could not get the rebounds. MVL did a nice job rebounding."

Lendt's rebound basket and a 3-pointer from Nass saw MVL increasing their lead to 50-31.

Leading 56-42 going into the final quarter, the Chargers ballooned the lead to 63-44 on free throws from Lendt and Nass with just under six minutes to go in the contest.

"I think that Cathedral got tired in the game," said Morgan. "This was their third game this week (as well as MVL's). Our kids hung in there. This is a nice rebound win after the loss to Sleepy Eye St. Mary's."

"We wanted to keep the ball out of the lane," Blethen said. "And we did a good job of that, but we just could not get the rebounds. They put good pressure on us and we did not use good shot selection as a result of that."

MVL also won the "B" game 60-30. Ben Ziesmer led MVL with 10 with Sam Verschaetse scoring 10 for the Greyhounds.

CATHEDRAL 20 9 13 15 -- 57

MVL 22 22 12 14 -- 70

CATHEDRAL (57): Hazuka 13, Neubauer 11, Lux 10, Schugel 6, Hoffmann 5, Rysdahl 4, Fox 4, Schwarz 2, Reinarts 2.

MVL (70): Nass 24, Lendt 14, Morgan 9, Thiesfeldt 9, Lange 7, Ferkenstad 2, Holzhueter 2, Krohn 2, Bielke 1.