MVL routs Cathedral in crosstown battle

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- New Ulm Cathedral boys basketball coach Bailey Blethen said it best.

"We ran into an excellent Minnesota Valley Lutheran team that beat the hell out of us," he said.

The Chargers used a 14-2 run to end the first quarter and never looked back as they hammered the Greyhounds 78-51 Monday night in Tomahawk Conference boys basketball.

Aaron Madson led the Chargers (11-1, 8-0 Tomahawk) with 16 points. Jake Firle added 12 and Jason Lohmiller 10. Eleven Chargers scored in the game.

Jacob Mertz took game-high honors with 19 for Cathedral (5-6, 4-4). Billy Schreiber and Tom Hazuka each finished with 11.

"It was a regular MVL-Cathedral game," commented MVL coach Craig Morgan. "They scrapped all night -- they are two players short (because of injuries), but they played hard and it is a credit to them."

"They beat us just like they did in the (Mankato) Bethany tournament," said Blethen. "They beat us every way that they can beat us."

But that 27-point win did not appear that it would happen after the first six minutes as both the Hounds and the Chargers struggled shooting. Cathedral notched only one of their first nine shots from the field while the Chargers hit only only four of 13 from the floor.

That let Cathedral gain a slim 7-4 lead before MVL stepped up their defensive pressure which, in turn, sparked their offense. Madson's rebound basket sparked a 12-0 run that turned a three-point deficit into a 16-7 lead when Bryant Polzin put back a shot.

"That is our philosophy -- we go from defense to kick in our offense," Morgan said. "We just did not focus early. On Monday games, we did not practice the day before and so you are coming off a Friday game. We came out unsure."

That 16-7 MVL lead expanded to a 23-11 margin with 6:15 left in the first half on free throws from Firle and Polzin.

With two starters out (Brandon Goblirsch out for six weeks with a stress fracture and Tony Moldan out with a possible torn ACL), it was hard for the Hounds to come back.

"We just do not have the depth to stay with them," commented Blethen. Plus, the Chargers pressured Hazuka, who was held to five first-half points. "They made sure that they knew where he was all night long. We could run the offense all night. It is just that they did a better job of stopping him than other teams have"

"We stuck Jake Bielke on him and told him not to let him get the 3 (-point shot),"Morgan said. "And if he drives, we will help you out on the back-side."

What also helped the Chargers was their depth as they ran players in and out of the game all night.

"We had a group of guys who came in there -- Karl Struck, Josh Dettmann and Shawn Black -- they caused some chaos in there (for Cathedral)," Morgan said. "We built on that (lead) and tried to get more subs in the game because we knew that Cathedral was not deep. If we could get into that, we would be OK."

"They just ran and ran on us," said Blethen. "Plus, they played excellent defensive pressure."

The Hounds hit on only six of 21 first-half field goal attempts (27 percent). "We were not able to get the shots that we wanted and the ones that we did get, we did not hit. We just did not get open like we wanted to." Blethen said.

The Chargers' depth saw them take a 32-22 lead at halftime and build that into a comfortable 47-28 lead with 3:32 left in the third quarter on a Jason Lohmiller basket, off-setting Mertz's eight points in the third quarter.

Karl Struck's 3-ball gave the Chargers a 54-32 lead with just over a minute left in the third quarter.

Mertz's rebound basket in the fourth quarter preceded an 11-0 run that saw the Chargers take their biggest lead of the game at 70-42 on a Madson basket midway through the fourth quarter.

MVL also won the junior varsity game, 73-36. Dustin Lendt and Dustin Lange both scored 10 points for MVL with Eric Schugel netting 15 for the Hounds followed by 12 from Dustin Hillesheim.

CHS 9 13 14 15--51

MVL 18 14 22 24--78

CHS (51): Mertz 19, B, Schreiber 11, Hazuka 11, Wilfahrt 6, Schmitz 4.

MVL (70): Madson 16, Firle 12, Lohmiller 10, J. Bielke 9, Dolan 8, Polzin 8, Dettman 4, Struck 3, Black 3, Nass 2, Hacker 2.