By Jeff Meder

sports@nujournal.com

NEW ULM — New Ulm Cathedral grabbed a 53-35 come-from-behind win over Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop on Thursday in a Tomahawk-Valley Conference, Tomahawk Division girls basketball game.

Both teams came into the game with losing streaks. GFW had lost seven in a row, while Cathedral had lost three, meaning something had to give.

“It was the tale of two halves,” Cathedral head coach Dave Wilfahrt said. “We had to go out there and be more aggressive.”

He was pleased with the Greyhounds’ team effort, noting that when one team member is having an “off night”, the others pick up the slack, and that makes a team a team.

GFW started to miss shots at key points during the second half. It led 29-15 at halftime, but it managed to only score 6 points in the second half. Kelby Bruns had a 3, while Taylor Bauer scored on a layup and made one free throw.

“We didn’t make our shots,” GFW head coach Richard Busse said. He added that scoring points has been a big challenge for the Thunderbirds this season.

Cathedral opened the second half when it chipped away at GFW’s advantage. Shay Wilfahrt fed Jayde Altermatt the ball which had Cathedral down 33-30. Wilfahrt made the back end of two free throws, which brought Cathedral within 2 points, 33-31. With 8:50 left, Wilfahrt buried a 3 which gave Cathedral its first lead since the first half. Her basket made 34-33. Altermatt scored a second-chance basket on the next trip down the court.

The Greyhounds instituted a full-court press, which helped its cause to add to the lead. The Thunderbirds used a press for most of the game, while Cathedral had either a zone defense or a half-court defense.

“The press helped,” Dave Wilfahrt said.

GFW either rushed shots, missed shots or turned over the ball at bad times. Bauer scored on a layup, which made it 40-35. Kylie Berdan passed the ball to Ashlyn Hillesheim, who fed Wilfahrt, who scored a basket for a 7-point cushion.

It could be summarized this way: almost everything went wrong for Cathedral in the first half and mostly everything went right during the second half.

GFW jumped out to an early led to start the game. It used a full-court press in hopes of wearing down Cathedral. Cathedral refused to fold as it came back to take the lead when Wilfahrt passed the ball to Altermatt, who hit a 3 for a 2-point lead. After at tie and one lead change, GFW held a 10-point advantage, 25-15, on Kora Schwarzrock’s basket. Bauer stole the ball, turned around and scored on a fastbreak basket just before the buzzer sounded.

Wilfahrt led the Greyhounds with 21 points and Altermatt had 17 points. Bauer led the Thunderbirds with 19 points.

Cathedral (2-10, 2-6) will play at Springfield (7-4, 5-2) on Tuesday. GFW (2-10, 1-6) will host Madelia (2-9, 0-5) on Monday.