Cougar defense stymies NUC

By JEN SEAVEY

Journal Sports Editor

NEW ULM -- The 57-52 final score belied the disproportionate play in Cedar Mountain's victory over New Ulm Cathedral Tuesday.

What Cathedral lacked on offense, the Cougars possessed; what the Greyhounds lacked on defense, the Cougars took advantage of.

In the first quarter, both teams were able to get some fast break opportunities and went into the second quarter with an 11-8 Cougar lead. But just a few minutes into the second quarter, 6-foot forward Megan Madsen spotted Cedar Mountain their first seven-point lead of the game when she sunk two free throws to go up 18-11. The Greyhounds closed in to trail 22-19 after Alaina Rasmussen's three-point play, but after Ashley Gewerth dribbled end-to-end through defense for a layup at the halftime buzzer, the Cougars led 29-19.

Gewerth scored 10 points in the game and had three assists.

"It was just running the plays right," Miheve said. She led the Greyhounds with 21 points and had eight rebounds. "We were out there not knowing what we were doing on offense. We also weren't getting our free throws down."

Cathedral went 11-for-23 from the free throw line for 48 percent. The Cougars did better, making 17-of-23 (74 percent).

And if that weren't bad enough for the Greyhounds, the Cougars were communicating well on defense, making it difficult for Cathedral to set screens.

"We had a lot of midline help when they tried to get it to the post," sophomore forward Shana Grejtak said. She scored 19 points. "We talked a lot on the picks so we didn't get burned."

In the second half, the Cougar defense continued to stymie the Greyhounds as Cedar Mountain kept a pretty consistent 10-point lead.

Cathedral took a timeout in the third quarter after Grejtak stole the ball and Kelly Gewerth put it in for a 37-25 lead. But Grejtak came right back and made an inside jumper to expand the lead.

"We ran it [the offense] smoothly but not to the best of our ability," Grejtak said. "[We need to] keep reversing the ball. We have a tendency to stop."

"They were really running the ball," Miheve said. "They weren't setting up anything special on offense -- we just didn't play good defense."

To begin the fourth quarter, Grejtak found Amanda Hoffbeck on a fast break to make it 50-31 before Cathedral took a timeout. Hoffbeck scored nine points and grabbed nine rebounds. Sam Madsen scored six points.

The timeout made a difference to the Greyhounds, who began to pick up intensity, using up their fouls to stop the clock. Sophomore guard Kirsten Prunty made two three-pointers in the last 26 seconds to pull the Greyhounds to trail the final 57-52.

Prunty finished the game with eight points. Katie Beranek also had eight points, six rebounds and three steals. Toni Hall scored seven points and had four rebounds.

The Greyhounds (6-2) play at Minnesota Valley Lutheran Thursday.

The Cougars (4-2, 2-2) host Buffalo Lake-Hector Thursday.

The Cedar Mountain B-squad beat Cathedral 55-24.