Eagles defense needs boost: Cardinals defeat New Ulm 69-41

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Two things that have hampered the New Ulm Eagles boys basketball team all season, turnovers and a lack of an inside defense, reared up against it in the game with Fairmont Friday night.

The Cards scored 16 points off of 18 New Ulm turnovers and earned 20 of their 37 second-half points from inside as they rolled by New Ulm 68-41 in South Central Conference basketball.

Nate Klutz led Fairmont (9-5, 4-2) with a game-high 17 points. Jake Clement added 13 and Ahmed Ibrahim 11.

Mikale Gustafson paced the Eagles (2-11, 1-6) with 11 points.

For the first quarter, New Ulm and Fairmont battled each other, and New Ulm held a slim 13-11 lead after the first quarter thanks to two treys from Tony Mielke and one from Gustafson.

"I thought that we executed our game plan in that first quarter," Eagle coach Pat Burmeister said. "We were patient on offense."

Both teams exchanged baskets as they were tied at 19-19 when Fairmont's Jake Clement hit a jumper in the paint. That set off a 14-2 run by the Cards to close out the second quarter as Fairmont moved from a tie game to a 31-21 lead at halftime.

"We wanted to slow down the game and we did that for the first 12 minutes of the game," Burmeister said. "We were in the game or we were ahead. But we got in a hurry and went to a faster pace game; we could not keep up with them."

A rebound basket by 6-foot 5 Joe McFarland and inside points from Greg Hanson and another 6-foot 5 Card, Ibrahim, gave the visitors a 28-21 lead.

'They were bigger than we were inside and when they did that, they also got control of the tempo of the game," Burmeister said. "And we never got control of that tempo again."

A Clement basket off of the eighth Eagle turnover of the quarter and a free throw with 28 seconds left in the half lifted Fairmont to a 31-21 halftime lead.

"They came with the full-court press and that really took us out of our half court offense. We did not handle the press real well," Burmeister said. "We needed to make better passes and better decisions with the basketball. We had too many lob passes tonight and turned the ball over. That really turned the game in their favor."

Fairmont would outscore the Eagles 21-10 in the third quarter, but this time it was not turnovers but rather Fairmont's inside strength again.

Fifteen of their points came from the paint as the Eagles had no answer for Ibrahim and McFarland.

"We did not have any energy in the second half," Burmeister said. "It was terrible -- we did not make any adjustments that we talked about at halftime. It was only a 10 point game going into the [third] quarter. We should have come out fired up and ready to play. But they came out and just shoved it down our throats."

Fairmont increased its 22 point lead to a commanding 64-33 lead with five minutes left in the game.

"We are a lot slower than they are. We need to play better help defense," Burmeister said. "We did not think in that second half. We need to improve on the mental aspect of the game."

The Eagle B-squad lost 74-45. Adam Johnson scored 10 for New Ulm. The New Ulm "C" team improved to 8-7 with a 50-37 win. Jon Suess scored 11 and Luke Wieneke added nine.

FAIRMONT 11 20 22 15 -- 68

NEW ULM 13 8 10 10 -- 41

FAIRMONT (68): Klutz 17, Clement 13, Ibrahim 11, McFarland 9, Schmidtke 7, Hanson 3, Melchert 2, Chirpich 2, Rieland 2, Kopischke 2.

NEW ULM (41): Gustafson 11, Mielke 8, Babel 6, Sprung 4, Gronewold 4, Geistfeld 4, Wendinger 2. Date 2.