New Ulm High School girls head basketball coach Julie Rogers said that her team played fabulous in the Winona Basketball Holiday Tournament over the weekend, going 2-0 as they picked up a 73-63 win over Class AAAA Rochester John Marshall before downing Winona Cotter 83-53.

“Against John Marshall, we had some really good play out of our guards and our posts Ramsey Hopp and Betsy Joyce, and we had Leah Brustad and Maggie Joyce come in,” Rogers said. “They went against two 6-foot-2 girls. In practice we had a game plan on how to handle that height and they executed that game plan to perfection. You think that you are going to get massively outrebounded by two tall seniors that are both headed to play college basketball.”

Roger said that JM played zone against the Eagles.

“That is not our favorite defense to play against, but we executed our offense well,” she said. “We only had two 3-pointers in that game, but we drove to the basket and dished the ball off and made some baskets.”

Against Cotter, who like John Marshall entered the tournament at 6-2, Rogers thought her team would see a lot of pressure defense from watching film.

“They run our full-court man defense and they tried to do that, but our three guards, Morgan Hulke, Brooklyn Lewis and Maddie Backer, along with Riley Wilson and McKenna Hulke — we handled that pressure well,” Rogers said. “We got the ball down the court and they could not catch up with us. At one point in the second half we had them down by the mercy rule (35 or more point lead) and we were motivated to play well in that game.”

Rogers said that her deep bench gave her the ability to substitute freely.

“When you are playing two games in two days and on a bigger court and are playing full-court man to man defense, players get tired.”

New Ulm, now 6-4 on the season, are off until Tuesday, January 7, when they host Worthington.

“We have played seven straight games on the road and we went 6-1,” Rogers said. “Our only loss was 73-72 to St. Peter, so we are playing some good basketball right now. After that home game we go back on the road for four more games so we are getting sick of being on a bus.”

EAGLES GIRLS HOCKEY FINISHES 1-1-1 IN SARTELL

The New Ulm Eagles girls hockey team went 1-1-1 in the Sartell Tournament this past weekend.

New Ulm beat Northern Lakes 4-3 last Thursday, lost 2-1 to Dassel-Cokato on Friday and then tied St. Cloud 2-2 on Saturday.

“Overall I thought that we had two really decent games in our first game and our last one,” Eagles head coach Jeremy Reed said. “Our second game was not our best played, but I was extremely proud of how the girls competed in that game.”

Overall Reed said that his team did a good job of getting pucks and bodies to the net.

“But we are still looking for consistency for three full periods,” he said.

Defensively the Eagles gave up seven goals and scored seven goals.

Reed said that Ava Brennan was in the nets for Games 1 and 3, while Ava Schmid was in for Game 2.

Reed said the Eagles still need work in their defensive zone.

“Our play on defense was a little discombobulated,” he said. “There were moments when it was really good and then there were moments where we ran around a little bit. But our biggest thing, especially in the second two games, was not controlling the puck.

“It seemed like the puck was more hot potato-like. No one wanted to take control of it and command it. Once that was off our passing was off and everything was off. There would be ups and downs within the game where we did really good and then poorly.”

Reed said it was hard to play three games in three days.

“This was the first time that these girls have experienced three games in three days,” he said. “I know that they were tired coming home — that is not something that you normally do. We have some girls who are banged up and healing from injuries. I thought that we saw a lot of growth in the tournament from the team.”

The Eagles, now 5-9-1, are off until this Friday when they host a good 10-5-1 Mankato East team at 7 p.m. at the New Ulm Civic Center.

NEW ULM BOYS HOCKEY GOES

1-2 IN PROCTOR

New Ulm Eagles boys hockey head coach Ryan Neuman said that he saw spurts of really good hockey in the Proctor Tournament.

“But then we had spurts on things that we need to make improvements on,” he said. “But I think that we are trending in the right way — the boys are starting to buy in — and we will be ready for the new year.”

The Eagles, who are now 5-5 on the season, opened with a 4-1 win over Proctor last Thursday before losing an 8-2 game to Brookfield, Wisconsin, on Friday and then ending the tournament on Saturday by dropping a 4-1 contest to Osseo.

“The game against Proctor was probably one of our most complete games that we have played this year,” Neuman said. “We played three pretty solid periods and we were consistent most of the game. We did give up a shorthanded goal, so 5-on-5 we limited their chances.”

New Ulm then faced Brookfield.

“They are undefeated and one of the top teams in Wisconsin and we did not play our best game that day. But credit to them, they are a very good hockey team, and they have a junior who will be playing DI hockey, and they move the puck real well.”

The Eagles then fell to Osseo.

“They are a good, solid team and have 18 seniors on the team and are a AA program. We just could not put the puck in the net,” Neuman said.

Neuman said that come January, his team is in playoff mode each game.

“We will make some tweaks and changes — try to get our players to buy into that and I think that we will be pretty successful.”

New Ulm is back on the ice Friday at Hutchinson.