Eagles sharp in win over Fairmont

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- In the Eagles' 72-41 boy's basketball loss to Worthington Tuesday night, New Ulm High School was charged with 23 turnovers and was outrebounded by a 43-15 margin.

What a difference three days make.

The Eagles committed only six turnovers and held a 28-15 rebound margin over a taller Fairmont team and went on to top the Cardinals 64-56 Friday night in the South Central Conference opener for both teams.

Andy Walden led the Eagles with a game-high 19 points -- 15 coming in the first half -- as New Ulm placed four players in double figures. Walden was followed by 12 from Bob Wellmann and 10 each from Dan Boettger and Jordan Budenski.

"You are going to see that balanced scoring from us this year," said a happy Eagles coach Pat Burmeister. "With the type of offense that we have and the players that we have, a team cannot concentrate on one player."

Mike Laue, the Cardinals' 6-foot 8 center led Fairmont with 16 points.

"I am very pleased with the team's performance," said Burmeister. "I thought that we played very well on the defensive end -- we contested shots and did a lot better job rebounding than we did Tuesday. High school teams don't score 60 per cent of the time down the floor."

But it looked like the Cardinals were going to score at a higher percentage than that as they started the game with a 7-0 run before the Eagles' Andy Walden hit a jumper with just over five minutes left in the first quarter.

That seemed to spark New Ulm as the Eagles, led by consecutive treys from Walden and a Bob Wellmann basket, took a 10-9 lead.

"I knew coming into this season that Andy was going to be a scorer," said Burmeister. "He worked a lot this past summer on his shot and he got stronger. Hopefully a lot of teams will not know a lot about him -- he is not afraid to shoot the ball. He picked us up and his scoring also picked up our defense."

Fairmont regained some momentum, taking a 17-10 lead on a Mike Laue basket at the start of the second quarter and hold a 22-14 edge with three minutes gone in the second quarter.

Dan Boettger's jumper ignited a 10-2 run for the Eagles as they tied the game at 24-24 on Walden's three-pont play and baskets by Walden and Boettger on Fairmont turnovers with two minutes left in the first half.

It was a half that saw the Eagles trailing 29-26 after hitting on only nine of 27 shots from the field.

New Ulm would fall behind 35-30 three minutes into the third quarter before a trey from Eric Austvold preceeded two baskets by Walden and a 37-35 lead.

Jordan Budenski's basket gave the Eagles a 39-38 lead with just over two minutes remaining in the third quarter. It would be a lead that the Eagles would not lose the rest of the way.

The Eagles increased their margin to 45-41 on hoops by of Budenski and Josh Zupfer before Boettger closed out the third quarter with a jumper and a 47-43 New Ulm lead going into the final quarter. They tacked on the first six points of the final quarter on two baskets by Austvold and a Boettger layup.

Leading by a 53-43 margin, the Eagles maintained a lead of between 6-10 points, forcing Fairmont to foul. Three free throws from Wellmann and two from Austvold sealed the Cardinals' fate as did some cold charity shooting by the Cardinals.

Fairmont was only 1-for- 7 in free throws in the fourth quarter and missed their last six free throws.

New Ulm lost the "B" game 47-44. Mikale Gustafson led New Ulm with 13 points while Andy Melchert paced Fairmont with 14.

Fairmont won the "C" game 52-32. Jonathan Curry and Shawn Witte each had 6 for New Ulm.

FAIRMONT 15 14 14 13--56

NEW ULM 10 16 21 17--64

FAIRMONT (56): Laue 16, Klutz 14, Clements 10, McFarland 8, Gerhardt 5, Saldivar 2, Kopischke 1.

NEW ULM (64): Walden 19, Wellmann 12, Boettger 10, Budenski 10, Austvold 9, Zupfer 4.