Hounds edge St. Mary's

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Jacob Mertz's driving layup with :30 left in the game set the stage as Joey Schugel scored 12 of his 19 game points in the third quarter and New Ulm Cathedral turned a three point deficit into a five point lead.

Schugel then capped off the evening by blocking a potential game-winning shot with :02 left as Cathedral held on to drop Sleepy Eye St. Mary's 61-59 in Tomahawk Conference basketball.

Will Moeller led Cathedral (2-0) with 20 points, followed by Schugel's 19 points.

Adam Fischer led the Knights (1-2) with a game-high 21 points.

"I thought that their kids did a nice job creating shots off of the dribble," said Cathedral head coach Dan Wolfe. "They are a quick team. They really challenged us defensively tonight. We were fortunate to be able to hang in there down the stretch."

"I thought that both teams really played hard," commented St. Mary's head coach Peter Roufs. "Give credit to Cathedral; they hit some big shots when they needed them."

Those big shots began in the third quarter when Schugel, who had scored three points in the Hounds' first game and had only two first-half points, caught fire after Wolfe made an offensive adjustment to get him more shots in that second half.

"We felt that we needed to get Joey more involved in the game and we worked him at a different spot than he normally really plays," commented Wolfe. "We thought that maybe we could get him some shots around the top of the key and pop him out."

Schugel hit his first trey of the third quarter to cut the St. Mary's lead to 30-28 and then his second 3-ball of the game sparked an 8-0 run that erased a 35-34 Knight lead. Schugel followed with a drive to the basket before Luke Schmitz scored his only three points of the game. burying a trey that saw Cathedral leading 39-35.

Two more treys by Schugel and a Moeller three-point shot with :10 remaining in that third quarter saw the Hounds ahead 48-43 going into the final quarter.

But the Knights' Fischer kept St. Mary's in the game as he scored the first seven points of the final quarter as SESM took a 50-49 lead on his bucket off a baseline drive. Nick Novotny's trey and a Fischer drive off a feed from Andy Konz saw the Knights retake the lead at 55-54. But free throws by Moeller and Schugel gave Cathedral a 56-55 lead.

Moeller's trey with 1:15 left in the game offset a basket by Randy Braun before Braun hit for his second hoop with :50 remaining in the contest.

Following Mertz's score Braun got loose for a potential game-winning trey, but Schugel swatted the shot away as the buzzer sounded.

Cathedral trailed early in the game, falling behind by an 11-6 score as a tight Knight defense forced 10 first-quarter turnovers. In a stretch of eight possessions, the Hounds got off only one shot.

"We talked about having good ball-pressure," commented Roufs. "We try and make it difficult passing angles for people. That ball pressure caused some problems for them."

The Hounds came back to cut the lead to 13-12 after one quarter on two free throws by Moeller and a Mertz basket.

St, Mary's John Pelzel canned a trey for an 18-14 lead early in the second quarter before Moeller gave Cathedral a 19-18 lead on a 3-ball and free throw as the teams would go into halftime tied at 25-25.

Steve Eckstein's trey and two free throws by Fischer lifted the Knights ahead 30-25 early in the third quarter before Cathedral started their run.

"The third quarter when they hit some three's and they made that run, we were trying to get out substitution pattern," Roufs said. "We probably had the wrong personnel in there and they took advantage of that."

Cathedral lost the B-squad game 60-33. Kyle Ludewig led the Knights with 16 while Tom Hazuka paced the Hounds with 10.

SESM 13 12 18 16--59

CATHEDRAL 12 13 23 13--61

SESM (59): Fischer 21, Braun 8, Pelzel 8, Novotny 8, Eckstein 6, Mack 4, Konz 2, Tyler 2.

CATHEDRAL (61): Moeller 20, Schugel 19, Groebner 9, Mertz 6, Goblirsch 4, Schmitz 3.