Waseca thwarts Eagles: Bluejays outscore Eagles 29-11 in third quarter

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Basketball coaches will tell you that the most important time spans in a game are the first three minutes of the game and the first three minutes of the second half.

Thursday night, the New Ulm Eagles played well in the first three minutes of their game (trailing only 7-6), but a 14-0 spurt by Waseca in the first three minutes of the second half sent the Eagles down to their third straight loss of the season.

Waseca won the South Central Conference game 72-47.

The Bluejays erased a 27-26 New Ulm halftime lead by outscoring New Ulm 29-11 in the third quarter to down the Eagles 72-47 in the South Central Conference opener for both teams.

Sophomore Peter Swanson led Waseca (3-1, 1-0) with a game-high 21 points. Twelve of his points came in the third quarter when he canned four treys.

Tony Mielke led New Ulm (0-3, 0-1) with 15 points. Jake Babel added 12 and Mikale Gustafson contributed 10.

"We played alright in the first half," New Ulm coach Pat Burmeister said. "Our transition defense hurt us in that first half but they had some turnovers (seven). I thought that our kids executed better in the first half on offense and we had a one point lead at halftime."

New Ulm would trail 14-9 early in the second quarter before staging a comeback and eventually tying the game at 20-20 on a trey from Mikale Gustafson and a basket by Jake Babel on a set inbounds play.

Matt Frey canned a jumper with 10 seconds left in the first half to give New Ulm a 27-26 lead at halftime.

It was a half that saw the Eagles hit 10-of-24 shots from the field and two-of-four from beyond the arc.

But Waseca -- and Swanson -- came out to start the third quarter with Swanson hitting back-to-back treys and Aaron Pilcher getting a basket off an Eagle turnover for a 34-27 lead with under two minutes gone in the quarter.

"We came out in that quarter and could not find their best player (Swanson), who we do not want to touch the ball and he gets two wide open three point shots," Burmeister said. 'Then they get a layup on a turnover -- they got a quick eight points and got momentum going. It took all the energy from us -- from there we really struggled the rest of the way."

MIelke's basket at the 4::50 mark of the third quarter gave the Eagles their first points of the quarter.

Waseca would expand their lead to a comfortable 52-32 on Swanson's third 3-pointer of the quarter before he buried the fourth of his five treys in the game to lift Waseca to a 55-38 lead going into the fourth quarter.

"At halftime, we said not to let Swanson touch the ball -- he will knock down those three's all night," Burmeister said. "We did not match up with them -- they made shots and we did not."

New Ulm hit five of their 14 shots from the field while Waseca hit six of nine from the field and four of eight from beyond the arc.

"We just struggled on offense in that quarter," Burmeister said. "But I don't think that we played with intensity all night long. We need to find a way to compete and get some energy and play with more desire."

Waseca padded its lead by outscoring New Ulm 12-3 in the final four minutes of the game to come away with the win.

The Eagles play tonight at Jackson County Central.

"We had some balanced scoring tonight. When you score 47 points you need to play a little better defense than we did," Burmeister said.

New Ulm lost the "B" game 39-35. Jon Curry led New Ulm with 12 points while Sam Paulson paced Waseca with 12.

WASECA 12 14 29 17 -- 72

NEW ULM 9 18 11 9 -- 47

WASECA (72): Swanson 21, Thomas 18, Pilcher 11, Goetz 7, Glynn 5, Battenfield 4, Nelson 4, Kozan 2.

NEW ULM (47): Mielke 15, Babel 12, Gustafson 10, Frey 5, Date 2, Besser 2, Sprung 1.