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February 19, 2000
Hounds rout St. Mary'sBy BOB VARMETTE Journal Sports Writer NEW ULM -- OK, who are those girls in the maroon uniforms, and what did they do with the New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds? Whoever they are, they're a pretty good basketball team. And at just the right time of the season. Playing with an intensity, and a competency, absent just a month ago, Cathedral celebrated Parents' Night with a convincing 46-29 win over Sleepy Eye St. Mary's Friday night in the Tomahawk Conference finale for both teams. "It was a different kind of game," Cathedral coach Mary Dengerud said. "It was a push-and-pull kind of game. It wasn't the kind of game that flowed real well. There were so many starts and stops, but our girls handled it really well." It wasn't a perfect game for Cathedral (12-8, 10-8) by any means. But the Greyhounds closed out their regular season on a winning note, something they have been doing frequently lately. And they've been beating some pretty good teams. St. Mary's (13-9, 11-7) isn't a bad one, but they played the part for the Greyhounds. "We simply just got outhustled throughout the whole game," St. Mary's coach Bruce Woitas said. "They were hustling more than we were. We just have to put it behind us and get ready for the postseason." The Knights will want to put this one behind them. St. Mary's shot only 30 percent from the field, committed 25 turnovers -- 19 in the first half -- and got outrebounded 37-30 by the shorter Greyhounds. But for Cathedral's five seniors it was a night to remember. The victory completes the regular-season resurrection of a team many had written off for post-season play. "We just took it one step at a time -- a game at a time," Cathedral junior Cathy Boettger said. "We've been building our confidence, and the team has been coming together really well." The 5-foot-8 junior led the Greyhounds with 10 points and cleared a game-high nine rebounds. No other Cathedral player reached double figures, but senior Jackie Wolfe added nine points. But what really mattered was how few points St. Mary's two go-to girls got. The Greyhounds shut down the Knights' offense and Ashley Mathiowetz and Nicole Steffl combined for only 17 points. Steffl led St. Mary's with nine points to go along with seven rebounds and four blocked shots. Mathiowetz added eight points. Keeping those two contained -- particularly Steffl -- was the goal going in for the Greyhounds. "Stopping Steffl was important for us to have a good game defensively," Wolfe said. "We knew we couldn't go one-on-one against her. We worked a lot on help-side defense and doing a lot of talking. Even then, we got into foul trouble, so it wasn't easy." Easy is a relevant term. Cathedral seemed to have no trouble from the start, except for some trouble with fouls. After cruising to a 28-16 advantage at half, the Greyhounds went on a 13-7 run to start the third quarter to put the game out of reach. Boettger scored six points in the quarter and put Cathedral up 37-18 with 3:41 in the third with an 8-footer in the lane that gave the Greyhounds their largest lead of the game. St. Mary's ran off five straight points, including a three-point play by Steffl, that cut the Cathedral margin to 37-23 with 2:41 in the third quarter. But the Greyhounds ended any hopes of a Knight rally when Boettger took a steal three-quarters the length of the court for a layup that put Cathedral up 41-23 with 1:51 in the quarter. "We were pretty excited and ready for this game," Wolfe said. "We've gained some confidence. We knew we could do it." In the junior varsity game, St. Mary's won, 35-30. St. Mary's is idle until Feb. 29 when they host the winner of the Lester Prairie-LeCenter game in the second round of the playoffs. Cathedral will host McLeod West Feb. 29 in a playoff game. ST. MARY'S 6 10 7 6--29 CATHEDRAL 15 13 14 4--46 ST. MARY'S (29): A.Mathiowetz 3-10 2-5 8, Steffl 4-10 1-4 9, Braulick 1-2 0-2 2, Eickhoff 0-1 0-0 0, Schroepfer 0-3 0-0 0, Berkner 0-1 0-0 0, Sprenger 2-6 0-0 6, Moldan 0-0 0-0 0, Pelzel 2-5 0-0 4, Eckstein 0-1 0-0 0, Walter 0-0 0-0 0, Fischer 0-0 0-0 0, R.Mathiowetz 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 12-41 3-11 29. CATHEDRAL (46): K.Beranek 3-9 0-0 7, N.Haala 3-10 0-0 6, S.Beranek 0-1 0-0 0, Hodapp 1-3 4-5 6, Boettger 5-12 10, A.Haala 1-2 0-0 2, Wolfe 4-8 0-0 9, Franta 0-0 0-0 0, Miheve 3-5 0-1 6, Hazuka 0-6 0-0 0, Lewis 0-0 0-0 0, Genelin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-56 4-6 46. 3-point goals--St. Mary's 2-9 (Sprenger 2-5, Berkner 0-1, R.Mathiowetz 0-1, A.Mathiowetz 0-2), Cathedral 2-9 (Wolfe 1-2, K.Beranek 1-4, Boettger 0-1, N.Haala 0-2). Fouled out--Miheve. Total fouls--St. Mary's 10, Cathedral 17. Rebounds--St. Mary's 30 (Steffl 7), Cathedral 37 (Boettger 9). Turnovers--St. Mary's 25, Cathedral 17.
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