Staff photo by Ari Selvey Cedar Mountain’s Blake Schueller (3) positions himself under the basket while defended by Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Kessler Severson (23) during a Tomahawk-Valley Conference, Tomahawk Division boys basketball game Thursday at St. Mary’s High School.

SLEEPY EYE — Cedar Mountain remained undefeated in the first game back from Christmas break with a 64-46 over Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s in a Tomahawk-Valley Conference, Tomahawk Division boys basketball game on Thursday.

The Cougars had to knock some rust off early after a slow start, but once they got rolling they never looked back.

“I think our defense held us together there to start,” Cedar Mountain head coach Brian Pendleton said. “It was a pretty sluggish start to the game for us offensively, but then we got into a better flow before the end of the first half there. Had to run a lot of sets, because they were shutting down a lot of our dribble drives and pick and rolls, so we went into a lot of sets and they seemed to work for us.”

Cedar Mountain, the No. 8 ranked team in Class A, now improves to 8-0 on the season, but Pendleton and the team are taking the season one game at a time.

“I think as we move forward the competition is going to grow,” Pendleton said. “Our section is tough and our conference is tough. We just got to take it one game at a time and not overlook anyone. It’s good to have four guys contributing offensively, it would be great if we could get five. So that’s what we’re working towards.”

Blake Schueller led the Cougars with 30 points, 19 rebounds and two blocks, while Blake Steffl had 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Zach Sandgren added 11 points and six rebounds with three steals.

George Schwint led the Knights with 11 points, while Adam Steffensmeier had 10 points.

Schueller said the team got into its passing after the early going, helping to get the offense going.

“I feel like we moved the ball around pretty well,” he said. “Obviously we could fix the offense a little more. We were a little sluggish at first, but in the second half we picked it up. Pretty good in the second half.

That passing was exemplified in the second half when Steffl connected with Schueller for an alley-oop, where Schueller was fouled but still came away with the bucket.

“Me and Blake [Steffl] have pretty good chemistry,” Schueller said. “I look at him and he really knows when to throw it up. He made a great pass and I converted it.”

The game started with a 6-2 St. Mary’s lead, with Steffensmeier hitting a 3-pointer early on. Cedar Mountain bounced back with a 7-0 run, but St. Mary’s tied it up with buckets from Brecken Hulke and Schwint at 10-10. St. Mary’s continued to push to a 14-12 lead, but the Cougars took command of the game with a 14-2 run, led by 6 points from Sandgren. The teams traded buckets until a 3-pointer from Carson Schiller put the Cougars up 33-23 at the half.

A mid-range jumper by Steffl opened up the second half for Cedar Mountain, and the Cougars pushed the lead out to 55-41 before Schueller’s alley-oop made it a 57-41 game. Cedar Mountain went up by as much as 62-41 before subs came in for the final minute of the game.

Cedar Mountain (8-0, 6-0) hosts New Ulm Cathedral on Tuesday. St. Mary’s (2-6, 0-4) hosts Nicollet on Monday.