Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Levi Hopp goes up for a layup during a nonconference boys basketball game against Mankato West Tuesday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — The New Ulm Eagles erased an early 19-7 lead Tuesday night and took the lead in the final minute to down the Mankato West Scarlets 63-60 in a nonconference boys basketball game.

It was New Ulm’s third straight win over the Scarlets of the Big Nine Conference.

The Eagles put together a 7-3 run in the last minute of the game to erase a 57-56 Mankato West lead and secure the win.

Levi Hopp led New Ulm (1-2) with 16 points. Brady Dennis added 11 and Mitchell Hopp 10.

Riley Johnson and Gus Schweim each scored nine for the Scarlets (0-3).

“This was a very fun team win,” New Ulm coach Matt Dennis said. “We had very unselfish plays from a lot of our guys and we had some great defensive efforts — we had great hustle plays. We had a big board by [Zach] Hubbard and a play on the sideline by Joey Wise. I was proud of the energy that we brought and proud of our crowd in believing in us.”

The Eagles, who host Waseca Friday in a Big South Conference meeting, fell behind 10-2 and then 19-7 before West doubled up on the Eagles at 24-12 on a Johnson basket.

“We were not playing poorly,” Matt Dennis said. “We were just missing our layups – we had point-blank shots and if we put them in, we are playing even with them.”

In that span when West gained that lead, the Eagles made just 3 of 15 shots from the floor and 1 of 8 from beyond the arc.

“We were not hitting the panic button, we just had to think of next play,” Matt Dennis said.

Down 24-14, New Ulm slowly cut into the lead. Two free throws from Nick Risen followed by two baskets from Mitchell Hopp on consecutive West turnovers saw New Ulm down 24-19 before two free throws from Brady Dennis cut the Scarlets lead to 30-24 at halftime.

“We talked at halftime that our shots are going to go in,” Matt Dennis said. “We were playing pretty decent in a lot of ways and we kept believing in what we were doing and the second half did go our way.”

A Brady Dennis conventional three-point play to open the second half sparked a 7-0 run with Hubbard’s basket one minute into the second half gave the Eagles their first lead of the game at 31-30.

West would regain a lead at 44-39 but New Ulm fought back to tie the game at 46-46 on a Levi Hopp free throw.

A Brady Dennis 3 regained the lead for the Eagles at 51-50 before the Scarlets got back on top at 57-56 with 2:48 left in the game.

That was when baskets from Levi and Mitchell Hopp and two free throws from Brady Dennis moved New Ulm to a 62-57 lead with 29 seconds left in the game.

A 3 from the Scarlets Evan Hartmann cut the lead to 62-60 with 17 seconds left in the game.

A Hubbard free throw with 2 seconds left made it 63-60 and a West desperation 3 was missed.

“It takes a lot of energy to come back like we did,” Matt Dennis said. “Our coaches put together a great rotation tonight — we had good lineups on the court at all times. We had three guys in double figures tonight and that is fun. This is a big win for us — it is West. It is always big brother.”