NRHEG slips past Eagles

By DAVE CLARK

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- The New Ulm Eagles girls basketball team left the gym feeling disappointed they lost 48-42 to New Richmond-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva, which just shows the progress they are making.

"Last year, they would have been celebrating that they just lost by six to this team," Eagles coach Brad Metter said. "Tonight, they're disappointed, and that's good. I thought the girls played a nice game. You look at us now compared to the beginning of the season, and you can see the improvement.

"We're starting to think no matter who we play against, we can beat them," he said. They shot well tonight, and that's where we've been most inconsistent."

This became apparent in the first quarter, when the Eagles proved that they had their jumpshots going. Alix Bergmann and Coresa Leighty nailed two jumpers each that were nothing but net and New Ulm quickly held an 8-2 lead.

But after a Panthers timeout, NRHEG came back just as quickly with a bucket from Emily Hagen and a trey by Traci Nelson that cut the Eagles lead to 8-7. But the Eagles managed just four more points in the quarter, both additional Leighty jump shots, and New Ulm entered quarter two down 15-12.

It should be noted that the Eagles were also able to beat another demon that had bothered them over the years, the full court press. NRHEG played it most of the game and only got one Eagles turnover because of it.

New Ulm started the second with six straight points, two more jumpers from Leighty and a bucket by Amanda Waibel, and the Eagles were up 18-15. Alison Anderson responded with a trey and it was knotted 18-18.

The Eagles took their last lead of the half with 2:15 to go, 21-20. The Panthers scored the last five points and took a 25-21 lead into the locker room. New Ulm then scored four of their next six off Panthers turnovers and it was tied at 27-27. There were six more ties through the rest of the third and into the fourth quarter, with a 36-36 knot and 5:30 left in the game.

Two free throws by Megan Oberle gave the Eagles their last lead of the game at 38-37. The Panthers then scored eight points in less than two minutes and New Ulm was down 45-38 with just 1:40 left in the contest. The Eagles Kelly Hammerschmidt was able to score four quick points to cut the lead to 45-42 with :47 left, but New Ulm was forced to intentionally foul and then got called twice in a row for double dribble and NRHEG took the 48-42 win.

Leighty led the Eagles with 14 points, with Bergmann and Oberle each contributing eight and Hammerschmidt adding seven. NRHEG was led by Hagen's 12 points.

The Eagles are now 3-11 on the season and travel Thursday to play Fairmont at 7:30 p.m.

New Ulm's B and C squads fared better than the varsity, with the B squad coming back from a 14-4 halftime deficit to win 29-26, led by Melissa Kuebler's 12 points. The C squad took home a 44-20 victory.

NRHEG 15 10 7 16 -- 48

NEW ULM 12 9 11 10 -- 42