St. Mary's conquers Cedar Mt./Comfrey

Knights defense hurts Cougars

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

MORGAN -- After graduating a talented senior class from a year ago, Sleepy Eye St. Mary's has a new approach to winning games this year.

The Knights displayed good team defense that led to 23 Cedar Mountain/Comfrey turnovers. Most of those turnovers led to easy baskets, and St. Mary's outscored the Cougars 17-8 in the fourth quarter to win 55-43.

"We know we're going to be a different team, and we're going to have to win some games just by playing team ball," St. Mary's coach Peter Roufs said. "The offensive runs won't be there like they were last year, so then we know defensively, if we're going to win games, we're going to have to pick it up a notch, and I think that's what we did tonight."

Matt Gangelhoff led the Knights with 17 points. He also had six rebounds. Sophomore Bryan Milliard had a double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

"Bryan's going to be an excellent player," Roufs said. "As a sophomore, he obviously has to experience some things at the varsity level. He's got good size, he rebounds well, and he's got a nice touch."

David Krenz scored 13 points and Cameron Mauer scored 10. The Knights keyed on Andrew Larsen, who scored seven."

"Larsen, he's an excellent player, and we knew that from last year," Roufs said. "We had to play a team effort with him. Bryan did a nice job of playing him man-to-man, but we also had to have some help on the weak side."

Alan Woitas had 10 points and four rebounds while Jake Bohnen, who was moved from the perimeter to the inside, had nine points and five rebounds.

"Jake's got a new role this year," Roufs said. "Last year we had him out on the perimeter playing that role where he took care of the ball and played good defense. He's a good enough athlete where we can have him down in the post and he's just really excelled this year."

Early on, Krenz's three-pointer gave the Cougars a 7-6 lead, but Gangelhoff got warmed up and hit consecutive threes as the Knights went up 12-7.

Juan Martinez later forced a bad pass that Gangelhoff stole and went in for an easy layup. Martinez had three steals and forced several others.

"He's going to come in and handle the ball extremely well on offense and hit the open shot," Roufs said. "And defensively, he's a ball-hawk, and he's going to create some things."

The Knights led 24-20 at halftime and 38-35 after three quarters, but Alan Woitas fueled the Knights in the fourth quarter with eight points in the final eight minutes. In that final quarter, the Knights opened with a 6-0 run and a basket underneath by Bohnen put the Knights up 52-37.

Cedar Mountain (1-1) is at Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop while St. Mary's (2-0) hosts Minnesota Valley Lutheran Tuesday.

Jeremy Behnke can be reached at jbehnke@nujournal.com