MVL's streak reaches 15

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Minnesota Valley Lutheran ran its winning streak to 15 games with a 78-65 win over New Ulm Cathedral in Tomahawk Conference boys basketball action Thursday night.

Jesse Pfeifer paced a balanced Charger attack with 17 points. Justin Ohm added 16, Tom Metzger ended with 15, Danny Liggett 14 and Dan Unke tossed in 10.

Will Moeller led the Hounds (9-10, 8-8) with a game-high 22 points.

"It was a typical Cathedral-MVL matchup," said Charger head coach Craig Morgan, who saw hit team improve to 16-1 in the Tomahawk Conference and 18-2 overall. "It was a hard-fought, well-played game."

"It was a lot closer than a 12-point game," commented Hound basketball coach Dan Wolfe. "The last couple of minutes we had to take some chances and put them on the foul line (eight of the final 10 Charger points came from the free-throw line). But I was real pleased with the effort of the kids."

MVL, which had beaten the Hounds by 20 points in their first meeting, looked like they were going to duplicate that task early in the game as they raced to a 9-3 lead after falling behind 3-0 on a Moeller trey, one of four 3-balls in the game for Moeller. But Liggett matched that with a trey which sparked that spurt. Three straight turnovers by Cathedral would result in the six points.

Two baskets by Ohm, one a jumper and the other off a trey, saw MVL running away 16-7. The Chargers would use baskets by Ohm and Liggett to double the score on Cathedral at 22-11 with just 30 seconds left in the first quarter.

MVL kept up the pressure on Cathedral, increasing that lead to 28-15 on a Jacob Firle basket off a Cathedral turnover and used another Firle hoop to balloon that lead to 34-19 with five minutes left in the first half.

But then, the Chargers seemed to lose their intensity and Cathedral grabbed the momentum.

Brandon Goblirsch's basket on a rebound would jump-start the Hounds as they dug into that 15-point lead and sliced it to a 36-35 MVL lead at halftime. Goblirsch,a junior post player, followed his basket with a three-point play before Moeller hit nothing but net on a 3-ball as Cathedral cut the lead to 34-27 with 2:15 left in the half.

Billy Schreiber's basket coming out of an MVL timeout and two Joey Schugel free throws saw the Hounds within 34-31 with just over a minute left in the first half.

"We hit a real flat spot and I don't know what that was," Morgan said. "We seemed to relax a little bit and you cannot relax against Cathedral; they play you really hard and keep coming at you."

Jacob Mertz's basket to close out the first half saw the Hounds, who seemed done down 15 points with five minutes, trailed by only one at halftime.

""We started to get the ball inside (to Goblirsch) and we hit a few perimeter shots and got ourselves back into the game," said Wolfe. "We did a nice job of looking to Brandon; he got some good feeds and in good scoring position and was able to finish."

MVL maintained the lead in the third quarter, taking a 44-39 lead on a Metzger basket before Luke Schmitz drilled a trey as Cathedral clawed back to within 46-44. But Metzger's second hoop sparked a 5-0 MVL run for a 51-44 lead. "They (MVL) are a team that can score in spurts on you," said Wolfe. "What you have to do is play defense and offense that does not allow that to happen."

The Hounds would do that to open the final quarter as two Schreiber baskets, both off MVL turnovers, cut the Charger lead to 55-52. But then the ability to score in spurts came back to MVL as Unke canned a jumper that saw the Chargers run off a 6-0 run to take a 61-52 lead with five minutes left in the game.

Moeller would bury two treys in that final quarter, the last pulled the Hounds to within 68-61 with 1:30 left in the game before the Hounds were forced to foul. MVL used that to score seven straight points for a 75-61 lead with 29 seconds left in the game as Liggett hit two charity shots

MVL won the B-squad game 51-44. Andy Beilke paced MVL with 16 points while Tom Hazuka led CHS with 19 points.

CHS 13-22-13-17--65

MVL 24-12-19-23--78

CHS (65): Moeller 22, Goblirsch 12, Schreiber 8, Schugel 8, Mertz 6, Biebl 4, Schmitz 3, Groebner 2.

MVL (78): Pfeifer 17, Ohm 16, Metzger 15, Liggett 14, Unke 10, Lohmiller 8, Firle 6, Madson 2.