Knights are on a crusade

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- While many people feel that Sleepy Eye St. Mary's 63-60 win over defending Class A basketball champion Mankato Loyola on Saturday may have been the Knights' biggest regular season win ever, Knights' coach Peter Roufs was restrained when talking about the win over the Crusaders.

"I don't think that I would say that it was our biggest regular season win ever," Roufs said. "It was a nonconference game, although beating the number one team in the state was a big win.

"We have had some big (Tomahawk) conference wins here," he said. "But it was a good game for us. It was a challenge for us to see where we are at compared to a very good team."

Loyola and the Knights were ranked one and two in the preseason by Minnesota Basketball News in Section 2A.

Roufs felt that one of the keys to the win was containing the Crusaders big two of center Bret Brielmaier and guard Truc Ho.

"They scored 16 and 15 points (respectively), but they really had to earn those points," Roufs said. "Brielmaier is awfully tough and big (6-foot-7), but I don't think that we gave him any easy baskets all game. That was a key. And another key for us in the win was defensively Matt Gangelhoff's play on Truc Ho.

"Matt has good quickness himself, and he is probably a little bit stronger -- he did a super job of trying to contain Ho," he said. "He did not allow Truc Ho to penetrate and dish the ball off for easy baskets. Truc really had to stay out on the perimeter more than he probably would have liked."

MATHIOWETZ BACK FOR KNIGHTS: Roufs said that getting Matt Mathiowetz back "was also a key for us. He had a big game for us, but it was an overall team effort that got it done defensively on Brielmaier and containing Ho."

Roufs also felt that his team distributed the ball well offensively.

"We spread the ball around well," he said. "Again ... Gangelhoff had a good defensive game but also played a solid game on offense (with 26 points)."

Roufs also felt that the game was back-and-forth all the way.

"They made their run in probably the middle of the third quarter. Brielmaier was starting to take over a little bit, so we went to a zone defense. That was just enough to make them adjust and slow down," he said. "But in the fourth quarter, we came back and played man-to-man, and I thought that our intensity rose. It was enough to hold them off. Those were the game swings. It was a see-saw game.

"We are getting better as a team now," Roufs said. "I would like to think that we are not at our peak yet. We still have players coming and going and we have not had everyone on the floor at the same time.

Roufs feels like his team has come to the holiday break very quickly, but talk on the team is concentrating on improving game by game.

"I think that we are doing that, and hopefully we can continue to improve," he said.

LOOKING TOWARDS MARCH: Roufs said his team, like all others, "is gearing for the end of the season for playoffs. All teams do that. As I told the kids that it counts in March. As the season goes, we want to get better each game."

He added that the win over Loyola "was a confidence-builder. When you play a quality team like them, it is a confidence-builder. But we beat a pretty good Worthington team already. We know that we have a tough (Tomahawk) conference."

SUMMER PLAY HELPED TEAM: Roufs said that most of the players on the team played a lot during the summer.

"We went to tournament at St. John's, and we were part of the Sweet 16 this year with Pacesetters, so we have played against some good competition," Roufs said. "The kids know that they can play at this level, and Saturday night was just reassuring that we can play with anybody."

Roufs said that the team "cannot rest on what we accomplished (on Saturday). We need to look forward to what we want to get done in March."'

Don't be surprised if the Knights and the Crusaders cross paths again three months from now with a state tournament berth on the line.