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Jan. 13, 2000
MVL Chargers heed Morgan's messageBy JIM BASTIAN Journal Sports Writer NEW ULM -- Following the Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers' 73-67 win Friday night over Sleepy Eye St. Mary's, MVL coach Craig Morgan said his team "has to come out with the mindset that we're going to play basketball right off the start. ... We have to know that it's a big game every time out there in the Tomahawk Conference." Morgan's players must have gotten the message as they played four solid quarters in their 68-54 win over Cedar Mountain Tuesday night to hand the Cougars their first loss in Tomahawk Conference play. The win was due in large part to a solid defense and an offense that saw five players hit double figures Dan Unke, Jesse Pfeifer, Justin Ohm and Jay Wendland all proved 13 was the lucky number as each hit for that amount of points in the game with Tom Metzger adding 10. "We have not said that we have to get Dan Unke the ball or Jesse Pfeifer the ball. We just run our offense and if you are open, got the shot or the opportunity, you take the shot," said Morgan. "These guys have matured a lot over the summer and they each can pick it up and put the ball in the basket at any point of the game." Morgan felt that the intensity that was not there for some parts of the St. Mary's game was there in Tuesday's game. "We felt that we got by them (St. Mary's). We got lucky and we cannot let the intensity get down again," he said. "Then it is a better game for you; our defense can come out and make some things happen." One of the things that also pleased Morgan was that even with a double-digit lead after three quarters against Cedar Mountain, the intensity level did not let up. "Our kids knew that they (Cedar Mountain) were down to (Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop) by a big score and still came back to win. So we knew that we had to play pressure defense all game. Don't let that (letdown) happen to you." Morgan felt that Wendland had a nice game at point guard. "He penetrated well; dished off (eight assists in the game). When he was cut off on a drive, he either pulled up for a jumper or he passed the ball off. That was nice to see." He said that Pfeifer had a good game. "Between him and Dan (Unke); second shots were pretty tough for them," Morgan said. "We started playing well together in the (Bethany) Christmas tournament and we worked together well in the St. Mary's game where we hit a little valley," Morgan said. "Tuesday night, we hit a peak again so we have to eliminate the ups and downs in our game. We need to play on a steady level all game." Incidently, Unke is now at 1,084 points. The city scoring record, held by New Ulm Cathedral's Steph Klaviter, is 1,694. Unke is a junior. MVL (5-1, 7-2) host GFW (1-5, 1-8) Friday night. LACK OF REBOUNDING KILLS EAGLES: New Ulm High coach Pat Burmeister was not pleased with the play of his team in their 75-50 loss to St. Peter Tuesday night. "We did not play with any intensity," he said. "And we did not do a good job on the boards.They scored over 20 points on offensive rebounds. We were bigger than they were, but we did not block out and rebound. They went after the rebound and got two and sometimes three shots." Burmeister said the Eagles shooting as a team was improved in the game. "We shot 43 percent from the field, which is decent. But they also shot the ball well and when you get the rebounds and shoot from two feet, you are going to shoot over 50 percent and that is what they did," Burmeister said. Brent Farasyn and Jeremy Fluegge each hit double figures with 14 points and 10 rebounds and 13 points and eight rebounds, respectively "But defensively, we did not play well good team defense," commented Burmeister. "We did not play with that intensity; we did not rebound or get after the loose balls. St.Peter played harder than we did. We have to play harder each game and want to win." Burmeister felt the loss to Blue Earth (in overtime) was tough. "But you have to bounce back from those losses. We have Waseca here (tonight). We can't let this loss affect us and get back to work in practice," he said. "We need to shut down (Waseca's) Eric Wood, but they also have other good players," Burmeister said. "John Arnold can score; they moved him to the two-spot now that (Blue Earth transfer) Kellen Driscoll is at the point guard. Tim Beckman can score; he is a big guy. We need to play solid team defense. We can hold Wood to 15 points but some of there other players can score." Waseca comes to New Ulm (2-2, 2-6) tonight off a 72-57 win over Fairmont and carrying a 3-0 South Central Conference mark and 8-2 overall. HOUNDS HAVE BALANCE IN WIN: Cathedral showed good team balance in its 68-36 win over GFW Tuesday night with four players hitting double figures. "We did a nice job of getting the ball to different kids in the game in places where they can score," said Cathedral coach Dan Wolfe. "Generally, that is the job of the guards and I thought that our guards (Will Moeller, Joey Schugel, Hans Biebl) played a nice floor game." Wolfe was also happy with the play of his bench that accounted for 17 points. "Hans Biebl, Brandon Reinarts and Dave Groebner (10 points) all contributed off the bench. We have been really glad to see those guys come on lately and really add some strength to our team. That will be really important down the stretch," Wolfe said. Wolfe started Kyle Neubauer in place of Mike Hall in a post spot. "We are trying to see what we can get out of that other post position," he said. "Right now, we are pleased with the chemistry of the kids. Everybody is working hard and we will keep that going." Cathedral, now 4-2 in the Tomahawk Conference, and 5-4 overall, will travel to McLeod West Friday night.
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