Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Jake Finstad scores on a layup while guarded by Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Will Kaesermann during a Tomahawk Conference boys basketball game at MVL High School on Tuesday night.

NEW ULM — Minnesota Valley Lutheran picked a bad night to turn in its lowest scoring output of the season on Tuesday night at Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School.

The New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds feasted on the Chargers’ offensive woes with a red-hot night on offense on the way to a 66-53 win in a Tomahawk Conference boys basketball game.

The Greyhounds shot 46% from the field and 46% from beyond the arc, while the Chargers shot 31% from the floor and 17% from the 3-point line.

The Greyhounds moved to 10-5 overall and 4-5 in the conference with the win, while the Chargers fell to 11-3 overall and 7-2 in the conference.

Isaac Miller, despite fouling out in the final minutes, was a big reason for the Greyhounds’ win with five 3s for 17 points. He also had eight rebounds.

“We would just get the ball to Jevan [Wilfahrt] in the post, he would make a smart play, get it out there to our shooters,” Miller said. “Coach was talking all practice and pregame — ‘We’re confident shooters, just let it fly and they’ll go in,’ and that’s what led us to victory.”

Wilfahrt, still looking to get back up to speed after suffering an ankle injury last week in a home game against Mankato Loyola, finished the night with 12 points and 12 rebounds.

Zach Gieseke also had a big game for Cathedral with 13 points, four 3s, and five rebounds, while Jake Finstad finished with 9 points.

Ben Halvorson led MVL with 14 points, four rebounds and three steals, while Will Kaesermann finished with 11 points and four rebounds and Aaron Black finished with 8 points and nine rebounds. Kyler Flunker added 8 points and four rebounds for MVL.

Ben Pearson, MVL’s leading scorer on the year, was held to 7 points.

“We haven’t shot well in the last week and we’ve been working on it, working on it, working on it,” MVL head coach Craig Morgan said. “So we shoot decent in practice, we just didn’t shoot well here tonight. And I don’t know how you don’t shoot well at your own home baskets, but we haven’t been home in a month. Last time we were at home was against Sibley East. We didn’t shoot well, I thought we defended all right, but they shot the lights out.”

MVL got its first shot to fall on a runner by Kaesermann with 14:35 left in the opening half to have MVL down 4-2. While the Chargers made some runs at the Greyhounds, they were never able to hold a lead once during the game, getting within 1 the rest of the half, 14-13, on a 3 by Halvorson.

The Greyhounds pushed their first-half lead to double digits, 29-18, after a 6-0 run. The run started with a Wilfahrt bucket inside before Gieseke stole the ball and found Colin Anderson for a fast-break layup. Miller then scored on a layup to finish the run.

Flunker hit a 3 to end the run, but Wilfahrt scored with just over a minute left in the half to give the Greyhounds a 31-21 halftime lead.

After a 3 by Gieseke started the second half, MVL continued to struggle offensively, missing its first three shots of the half. MVL got some lift after Flunker converted an and-one and Pearson got a putback bucket to have MVL down 34-27, but Miller scored inside before knocking down a corner 3 to have Cathedral up 39-27. Another corner 3, this time by Gieseke gave Cathedral a 42-27 lead and forced an MVL timeout with 14 minutes to play.

Back-to-back 3s by Miller gave the Greyhounds their largest lead of the night, 48-29, moments later. MVL put together an 8-0 run that was capped off on a steal for a layup by Halvorson to trail 48-37, but Anderson hit a 3 to end the run and give the Greyhounds their double-digit lead back.

A pair of free throws by Black with 5:52 left to play brought the Chargers within single digits again, 54-46, but Gieseke drained another corner 3 to put the Greyhounds’ lead back to double digits and the Chargers were unable to cut their deficit to single digits again the rest of the night.

Miller said Tuesday night’s win showed the Greyhounds can hang with the top teams in the conference and was glad to get a win like this midway through the season.

“We know we can beat Sleepy Eye and all these other big teams in our conference,” Miller said. “It was good to get this confidence-booster and we believe we can go far.”

MVL is at Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial Thursday night, while Cathedral is at Wabasso Thursday night.