Staff photo by Ari Selvey Cedar Mountain’s Kendra Erickson (14) drives past New Ulm Cathedral’s Kylie Berdan (3) during a Tomahawk-Valley Conference, Tomahawk Division girls basketball game Tuesday at Cathedral High School.

NEW ULM — With 10 seconds left on the clock, Cedar Mountain’s Miley Renville received a pass on the right baseline, turned, saw she was open, and put up a shot.

Renville sunk the jumper to put the Cougars up 44-42, which stayed as the final in a Tomahawk-Valley Conference, Tomahawk Division girls basketball game against New Ulm Cathedral.

“I just knew that it was a big shot to win the game for my team,” Renville said. “I knew that somebody had to step up … We were just told to be a leader, and I had to go do that.”

Cedar Mountain was down by 38-28 in the second half, and leading scorer Aubrey Steffl fouled out of the game with 2:18 to play in the game with the Cougars down 41-38. But Cedar Mountain found a way to win despite the deficit.

“I’ve watched some scores down here and it seems like every team that plays in New Ulm, it’s just a tough place to play,” Cedar Mountain head coach Brook Christensen said. “They put a fight up tonight. We just had no answers. Shots weren’t falling, but we never tell the girls to stop shooting, that’s for sure. One way or another at the end of the game, we got a win.”

Stepping up in the game for the Cougars were Kendra Erickson with 13 points, nine rebounds and two steals, Marlie Wildt with 11 points, 10 rebounds and two steals, and Grace Hamre with 9 points, six rebounds and two assists. Steffl still managed 7 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and four steals in limited action. Cedar Mountain needed to see other players become leaders in the game late to finish out strong.

“Somebody’s got to be a leader,” Christensen added. “When you lose Aubrey, we didn’t lose her right away, but once she went out, somebody’s got to step up. We had a couple girls do that for us. Played strong defense, our defense picked up a little more, we had a couple steals, got some easy buckets. Just pushed really hard to finish out the game, and it ended up working out our way.”

Renville added that the team’s effort and communication picked up in the second half as they were mounting their comeback.

“Just talk it though,” Renville said. “I think that communication is so key on the court. We lacked that in the first half, and coming out in the second half I thought that we needed to put in that much more effort in talking it through. Just really effort, we needed to find that to get back into the game, and we did.”

Maddie Gilles led Cathedral with 14 points, while Shay Wilfahrt had 11 points. Jayde Altermatt and Brynn Wilfahrt each had 6 points for the Greyhounds.

Cathedral was able to hold Cedar Mountain to its season low in points thanks to a scrambling defense and strong rebounding. Cathedral head coach Dave Wilfahrt said the team came together for a group effort on the defensive end.

“The girls came out and played really hard,” he said. “They wanted to really work on playing good defense and playing defense together. It was just hard work, team effort for us.”

Cathedral got out to a 5-2 lead early thanks to a 3-pointer and a layup from Altermatt, but Cedar Mountain stormed back with two buckets from Wildt to take a 8-5 lead. A 3-pointer from Shay Wilfahrt tied the game up, and the score stayed very close and low for the remainder of the first half, with the Greyhounds heading into the break with a 24-23 advantage thanks to a 3-pointer from Brynn Wilfahrt.

Cedar Mountain started the second half with a 5-0 run with a 3-pointer from Hamre and a layup from Wildt to go up 28-24 before layups from Shay Wilfahrt and Gilles tied the game. That was the start of a 14-0 run from the Greyhounds, ending with a driving layup from Gilles, to take the largest lead of the game, 38-28.

“I think we were just being patient, taking our time,” coach Wilfahrt said. “Looking for open shots, open layups, and we had some open shots outside. The girls hit some big 3s, that helped. We just keep working at it.”

Wildt hit a free-throw to end the scoring drought, and a pair of 3-pointers from Erickson and Hamre tied the game once more at 38. Gilles responded with a 3-pointer of her own as Steffl fouled out of the game. Shay Wilfahrt split a pair of free throws to extend the lead to 42-38, but a 3-pointer from Hamre cut the lead down to 1 with 1:18 to play. Wildt made one of two free throws to tie the game up before Renville, in the game because of Steffl’s fouls, made her go-ahead shot with just seconds left on the clock.

Gilles drew contact on her shot at the other end as time expired, but no foul was called as Cedar Mountain escaped with the victory.

Cedar Mountain (9-4, 4-3) hosts Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda on Thursday. Cathedral (1-10, 1- 6) hosts Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop on Thursday.