Hounds could surprise

NEW ULM -- Even though the New Ulm Cathedral girls basketball team fell 44-38 to MVL Friday night, the Greyhounds raised some eyebrows in their overtime loss to the Chargers, who came in at 16-1 in the Tomahawk Conference and 18-3 overall.

The Hounds, who are 9-9 in the conference and 11-10 overall on the season, demonstrated that they will be a team to contend with in the Section 2A North Tournament, which begins with two pigtail games on Feb. 23. Cathedral is seeded third behind MVL and Sleepy Eye St. Mary's.

Going into the game with the Chargers, the Hounds used a smaller lineup (three 5-foot-7 girls, a 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-11 center). "We got quicker with this lineup," said Greyhound coach Mary Dengerud. "We wanted to come into this game and play well before tournaments; that is all that we wanted to do."

And play well, they did. They fell behind by a 7-3 score after one quarter before taking an 8-7 lead less than two minutes into the second quarter. The Hounds would maintain that lead for the rest of the second quarter, all of the third quarter before MVL knotted the game late in the fourth quarter.

"This game was a big boost for us," commented Dengerud. "We played really well. Playing good teams right at the end of the regular season schedule is great for us."

There were several players who played well for the Hounds against MVL. Point guard Kristin Beranek hit three 3-balls in the game. Plus, both Cathy Boettger and Liesl Genelin showed good game sense. Both are outstanding athletes.

Genelin, only a sophomore, will be one worth watching in the future. You just know that she is going to be someone special.

MVL OFFENSE NOT SMOOTH: One thing was apparant on Friday night -- the Charger offense was not smooth in the win over Cathedral.

"It seemed like in the first half, we were getting a lot of opportunities transition-wise," said MVL basketball coach Dave Biedenbender. "But we were not capitalizing on them. Then we we finally had to go to our set offense and run that, we were scrambling. That is something that we have to work on and pick up the pace so we don't get so frazzled out there."

MVL was in foul trouble early in the game as Jessica Merseth and Leah Morgan each picked up their second foul in the first quarter. Both would finish the game but Erin Czer, perhaps MVL's best defensive player, fouled out of the game less than two minutes into the final quarter.

"What that (foul trouble) changes is that you put people in the game who normally are not in the game as much," said Biedenbender. "At that point, we just stayed with our person-to-person and tried to play good defense without fouling."

GRONHOLZ HAS SURGERY: Sarah Gronholz had surgery to repair her knee Thursday here in New Ulm. It was determined that her ACL was torn and her MCL also had a slight tear in it.

EAGLES FRUSTRATED IN LOSS: New Ulm High boys basketball coach Pat Burmeister said that the 51-40 loss to St. Peter Thursday night "was a little bit frustrating."

New Ulm had beaten the Saints earlier in the year at New Ulm on a last-second basket by Bobby Wellmann, his second game-winning shot of the season.

"We had played well against Marshall and Hutchinson and were playing a team that was not as good as those two. But we came out and did not play well; we tried to force a lot of things that were not there rather than go at our own pace. This was also the one time all season that we had a size advantage on a team and and had some mismatches. But we just went too fast and took some bad shots or we turned the ball over."

Burmeister said that his team "did a nice job defensively with our match-up zone."

But the Eagles are hurt by a lack of numbers due to injuries and other things. "Rob Geistfeld is out with a cracked rib and Charles Ganske has a sprained ankle." The Eagles are also without a player who is academically ineligible.

"We are pretty limited on what we can do because of the numbers; we are down to 7 or 8 guys," Burmeister said. He hopes that both Geistfeld and Ganske will be back for the Eagles' home game Thursday against Waseca.

Burmeister said that his team "is getting frustrated. We go out and play hard but don't get the win. I have looked at our first game (film) against Waseca and we have made strides since then. We just have to make sure that we keep our heads up and do things within ourselves."

He said personally it has frustrated him. "We work hard to get better, but some times we still make the same mistakes with defensive breakdowns that cost us games. We just need to work hard."

Burmeister also said that having the limited personnel has seen players being shifted around. "We moved Matt (Schmidt) into the post spot (from his point guard position) and have had Bobby Wellmann there along with Colby and Caleb Leighty to give Charles Ganske a break. We have had to make some rotations that are not ideal for us, but it is all that you can do is to make the best out of the situation."

WOLFE LIKES PLAY OF JUNIORS: While Cathedral boys basketball coach Dan Wolfe was happy with the play of his team Thursday night, he was also happy with the play of juniors off the bench in Brandon Goblirsch, Luke Schmitz, Jacob Mertz and Billy Schreiber. They combined for 29 points.

"That is a good sign for us as we go into the tournament and also for the future," commented Wolfe. "We still have confidence and a lot of heart."

He said that his team "has also played better in our last five games. That is what you want at the end of February and going into March."

Wolfe said that the Chargers "moved the ball well in the first half and knocked down a lot of perimeter shots (8-of-12 from the field, with six different players scoring). But then they cooled off and we got the job done inside (cutting the lead to 34-31) feeding our posts and hitting some perimeter shots."

MORGAN WANTS BALL INSIDE MORE: MVL boys basketball coach Craig Morgan felt that his team "did not get the ball inside enough" in their win.

"We talked about that at halftime more because they (Cathedral) only had two fouls and that was when we got the ball inside," he said.

MVL forced eight CHS turnovers in that first quarter that led to eight points. "Danny Liggett played some real good aggressive defense at the point," Morgan said. "Plus, we played the passing lanes well but we stopped doing that in that one area (when Cathedral fought back to slice a 15-point lead to one at halftime).

MVL held a slim 55-52 lead early in the fourth quarter before Dan Unke canned a jumper with seven minutes left in the game that sparked a 6-0 Charger run for a 61-52 lead with 5:25 left in the game.

"I made three substitutions and I said let Dan work the middle, get the ball inside to him and let him go after the ball inside and shoot and you guys on the perimeter; be ready for when Dan kicks the ball back out, and he did that a few times. He got the ball inside and scored, and then kicked the ball back out."

BERNARD LEADS EAGLES: Andy Bernard leads the 9-10-2 New Ulm wrestlers (3-3 in the South Central Conference) with 15 pins this season at 189 pounds. Nate Gieseke (119 pounds) is second with 11 with Chris Koob (103) third with eight. Matt Wenninger (130) is the takedown leader with 63, followed by 60 from Koob, 55 by Gieseke, 54 by Bernard and 43 by Paul Ruch (140).

Column by Jim Bastian, Journal sports writer