Recent buzzer-beater healthy for Cathedral morale

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- It seems these days that statistics in basketball are kept for almost every facet of the game: points per game, rebounds, assists, turnovers, even playing time.

One stat that is not officially kept is the statistic on "last second, game winning shots."

In New Ulm, I have witnessed three of those buzzer-beaters in the last few years.

One that quickly came to mind was last year's Upper Midwest Athletic Conference tournament game between Martin Luther College and Presentation in the semifinals of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference tournament held at MLC.

Leading for more than 39 minutes, the Knights saw their quest for a conference tournament title fall on a last-second layup.

Two of the other last-second shots involved the Greyhounds of New Ulm Cathedral.

The first one happened several years ago in a sectional game with Cathedral taking on the Nicollet Raiders. A last-second bucket by Nicollet ended the Greyhounds' season.

The other took place Friday in a game against McLeod West when Eric Schugel banked home a buzzer-beater to give Cathedral a 65-62 win over the Falcons.

Schugel's last-second shot -- and the win by the Greyhounds -- was perhaps, in the grand scheme of things, not as important as the shot would have been in a conference tournament or in a sectional game.

It did not lift the Greyhounds to a championship, nor did it happen in front of a packed house in tournament play.

But Schugel's basket had just as much meaning for the Cathedral boys basketball team.

First and foremost, it ended a streak during which the Greyhounds had lost eight straight games.

During the skid, Cathedral lost more than games.

Two players who had seen playing time on the varsity left the team during the losing streak, leaving them with a roster of eight players on the varsity.

Ending a losing streak, especially a long one like Cathedral went through, is not an easy thing to do.

Player confidence starts to falter. It is just human nature to start to doubt yourself when things are going not the way you expect them to.

Players tend to play not to lose instead of playing to win.

So for the Greyhounds, this was more than a losing streak with players leaving.

One has to wonder what the players felt when their teammates left them during the losing streak for whatever reason.

The eight players on Cathedral had to wonder when the albatross of the losing streak would be lifted from around their necks.

It appeared early in the game with the Falcons that the Greyhounds were going to end the streak when they held a 10-point lead in the second quarter.

But then the things that haunt a team during a losing streak happened. The Greyhounds had forced 25 McLeod West turnovers, but the scoreboard said they were tied at 62-62 with five seconds left.

Schugel then took an inbounds pass and dribbled just over midcourt where he took his desperation shot from outside the 3-point arc and watched it bank in as the buzzer sounded for the win.

Again, it was not a shot that gave the Greyhounds a championship or kept their season going. But is was a shot that was just as important as any ever made in the Cathedral gym.

It gave Cathedral hope in a season that really needed a shot in the arm.