Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Jevan Wilfahrt pulls in a rebound while guarded by Cedar Mountain’s Blake Steffl (2) and Jacob Lee (13) on Tuesday night during a Tomahawk Conference boys basketball game at Cathedral High School.

NEW ULM — Led by Jevan Wilfahrt’s double-double on Tuesday night, New Ulm Cathedral muscled past Cedar Mountain for a 68-63 win in Tomahawk Conference boys basketball action at Cathedral High School.

Wilfahrt had 36 points and 10 rebounds to lead the way, while Isaac Miller added 11 points and four rebounds. Jake Finstad added 9 points and three rebounds for the Greyhounds.

Cedar Mountain was led by Branndon Pendleton’s 20 points, five assists and five steals, while Blake Schueller had 19 points and 10 rebounds and Blake Steffl added 12 points and seven assists. Jacob Lee added 9 points for the Cougars.

The Cougars dropped their second consecutive game of the season and fell to 6-4 overall and 3-4 in the conference.

The Greyhounds took to their home floor on a two-game skid, determined to shake off a pair of tough losses to Springfield and Sleepy Eye last week. Outrebounding the Cougars and making enough big plays late Tuesday was just what the Greyhounds needed to bounce back and move to 7-4 overall and 3-4 in the conference.

“Both teams made runs, both teams had to make some adjustments, and we were fortunate enough to just make some plays down the stretch,” Greyhounds head coach Alan Woitas said. “That’s a very good team. It kind of played into the half-court tonight, which is unusual, it’s kind of more characteristic of a playoff game where the game slows down a little bit and you’ve got to score and guard in the half-court.

“And we were able to get stops at some big times. But, yeah, defensively we did a nice job on the glass and offensively it allowed us to get some second-chance points, which ultimately might have been those few extra possessions that decided the game.”

After a steal and one of Branndon Pendleton’s several mid-range jumpers Tuesday tied the game at 63-all, Wilfahrt drew a shooting foul with 1:19 left to play. He cashed in on both free throws and later got another free throw on a one-and-one chance with 52.3 seconds left to have the Greyhounds up 66-63.

After a missed Cedar Mountain shot, Cathedral’s Elliott Hoffmann grabbed the rebound while falling out of bounds and dished it to Wilfahrt, who called a timeout with 24.8 seconds left. Cooper Freitag managed to steal a pass at midcourt out of the timeout for the Cougars, but his pass to Steffl and Steffl’s pass to Aaron Heidemann for a corner 3 ended with a miss, which was rebounded by Blomberg.

Blomberg then handed the ball to Hoffmann, who was fouled and sank both double-bonus free throws to put the final points on the board.

Blomberg had five rebounds for the Greyhounds and played a big role in keeping the physicality level up for his team.

“He had some big [rebounds],” Woitas said. “He did a lot of little things away from the ball, helping on dribble-drive, recovering to shooters, things that don’t necessarily show up in the box score. Just a really solid game from him on the defensive and offensive end.”

Cougars head coach Brian Pendleton said his team’s zone defense made rebounding a little tougher.

“Whenever you play zone, it’s hard to rebound out of a zone,” he said. “Especially the long rebounds, we didn’t get those. And I think a lot of points, they were just more physical than us. We’ve got some young players, play a lot of juniors, but they’re going to have to start stepping up for us.”

What the Cougars did get, however, were a couple of comebacks. In the first half, Miller’s alley-oop bucket off of an inbounds pass to beat the shot clock buzzer gave the Greyhounds a 25-15 lead.

That bucket saw the end of a 12-2 Greyhounds run.

Cedar Mountain battled back with a 7-0 run to trail 25-21 after Schueller stole a rebound away on the Cougars’ offensive end and converted on an and-one. Wilfahrt had a couple of baskets after that to keep the Greyhounds in front, but he also fouled Branndon Pendleton on a 3 with 17.6 seconds left in the half.

Branndon Pendleton sank all three free throws to have the game tied 32-all at halftime.

An 8-2 run out of the break gave the Cougars a 40-36 lead, but the Greyhounds put together a comeback of their own for a 14-0 run and 48-40 lead. Wilfahrt had a bucket inside and a pair of 3s during the run, while Zach Gieseke and Finstad also had 3s.

The Cougars hung around.

A steal led to a Steffl putback to have the Cougars down 53-51 with less than seven minutes to play before another steal and layup by Steffl tied the game. Miller hit a 3 after that, but Heidemann answered with a 3 to tie it again.

Both teams traded baskets after that before the Greyhounds did enough in the final minute to hang on for the win.

“In the half-court, we kind of struggled,” coach Pendleton said. “I bet we missed 10, 12 layups. We’ve got to make those if we’re going to beat good teams like this. And hopefully down the road, we can do that. But [Cathedral’s] got a nice team. They protect the basket well and obviously Wilfahrt is a very nice player and can do a lot of things for them.”

Cedar Mountain hosts Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda in nonconference action on Thursday night, while Cathedral hosts Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop on Friday night for conference play.