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December 22, 1999
Chargers edge CHSBy JIM BASTIAN Journal Sports Writer NEW ULM -- When Minnesota Valley Lutheran and Cathedral High School meet in boys basketball, two things are very common. The game will be close, and usually produce a hero. Tuesday night was no exception. Jon Beilke's three-point play with 18 seconds left in the game tied the score and ignited a 7-0 Charger run in the final 58 seconds to lead MVL to a 56-52 win over the Greyhounds in Tomahawk Conference basketball. Beilke led MVL (2-1) with 16 points, with Jesse Pfeifer tossing in 14. Cathedral's Jesse Ahlbrecht, saddled with early foul trouble, still led all scorers with a game-high 19 points. Will Moeller added 16. With the game tied at 49-49, Ahlbrecht hit a bucket with 1:20 left in the game for a 51-49 lead and Joey Schugel sank a free throw 19 seconds later for a three-point Hound edge. But that was when Beilke took a step up, turning a steal into a three-point play and tying the game, leading to a Charger win. "Jon really stepped up tonight," said Charger head coach Craig Morgan. "Those baskets and free throws were big." "Both teams played hard, but this came down to a one-possession game," said Hounds' head coach Dan Wolfe. "But we could not make a play at the end to get us over the top, whether it was to get that one rebound or one free throw. It's a real heartbreaking loss for us." The Hounds came out in a diamond-and-one defense on Dan Unke and it worked as Unke was held to just two first-half points, those coming on a steal, as Mike Hall and Kyle Neubauer stuck to the newest 1,000-point scorer at MVL. "They did a nice job on Dan," commented Morgan. "I told the kids that we were going to run certain things (becasue of the defense on Unke) and other guys stepped up and scored for us." A Danny Liggett trey and two free throws by Beilke lifted MVL into a 15-10 lead before Ahlbrecht drove the baseline for a basket and Schugel drained a trey for 15-15 tie. Beilke then closed out the second quarter hitting three free throws as he scored two, coming when Ahlbrecht was whistled for his third personal foul with over four minutes to go in the first half. "Defensively, they broke us down a couple of times and Jesse tried to make a play under the basket; those (three) fouls hurt us, but overall it was not a factor in the game," Wolfe said. Cathedral seemed to take control at the end of the first half on baskets by Moeller, Hall and Neubauer for a 21-18 Hound lead. Both teams traded baskets throughout the third quarter before a James Hillesheim free throw and a running jumper by Schugel saw Cathedral pull out to a 37-30 lead, and a Moeller trey to end the third quarter gave the Hounds a 40-34 lead. Ahlbrecht's three-point play to start the final quarter increased the Cathedral lead to 43-34. But it was a Beilke basket that started an 8-0 MVL run which ended when Liggett fed Justin Ohm for a hoop to cut the lead to 43-42 with 4:49 left in the game. "Again we just did not make that defensive stand when we had to," said Wolfe. "We had opened up a lead. We felt that we played hard enough to win but we did not make a (defensive) play when we had the lead. "This is a team that is still finding itself. We are four games into the season and I like what I see out of this team. We have progressed every week." "This was a nice win for us," said Morgan. "Cathedral came out with a lot of intensity tonight. We just made the play when we had to." MVL also won the B-squad game 49-37. Aaron Madson and Shawn Black each had 10 for MVL while Billy Schreiber netted 10 for Cathedral. MVL 11 7 16 22--56 CHS 10 11 19 12--52 MVL (56): Beilke 16, Pfeifer 14, Unke 8, Ohm 8, Liggett 6, Metzger 4. CATHEDRAL (52): Ahlbrecht 19, Moeller 16, Schugel 6, Hall 5, Hillesheim 4, Neubauer 2.
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