NEW ULM — The New Ulm Eagles hit their stride in the second half Saturday to pull out a 67-58 win over the Hutchinson Tigers in a nononference boys basketball game at New Ulm High School.

Zach Hubbard led the Eagles (3-11) with 15 points, while Mitchell Hopp had 14 points and Brady Dennis had 13. Levi Hopp chipped in 8.

Hutchinson (5-8) was led by Landon Teetzel’s 13 points, while Brady Larson added 12 and Matthew Ortloff had 10.

The first half was a back-and-forth exchange between the two teams, with New Ulm pressing early on. The Eagles’ press did lead to a few Hutchinson turnovers but not enough to widen any lead they had. After Dennis and Hutchinson’s Luke Radke exchanged 3s, Levi Hopp buried a 3 to put New Ulm up 9-7. Hutchinson never led by more than 2 in the half and after taking a 19-17 lead on a steal for a layup by Teetzel, New Ulm cleaned things up, tying it on a pair of Hubbard free throws before Mitchell Hopp scored on a layup and added a corner 3 for a 24-19 lead. New Ulm turned that scoring burst into an 11-0 run total after an Owen Castleman layup and free throws from Nick Risen made it 28-19 New Ulm in the final two minutes of the half. The Eagles took a 31-23 lead into the half.

After wearing down the Tigers near the end of the first half, the Eagles continued their momentum in the second half and started to get their fast break going also.

First, Risen found Hubbard on the hoop for a fast-break bucket before a layup from Castleman gave New Ulm a 43-27 lead and forced a Hutchinson timeout with 13:34 to play. Mitchell Hopp picked up his fourth foul of the game with 10:22 left, bringing Lendale Dunmars to the floor as a substitution. New Ulm didn’t stop its aggressive attack after that, with Dennis layup, a Risen putback and a steal for a layup by Joey Wise giving the Eagles their largest lead of the game at 53-33.

Hutchinson hung around and cut its deficit to 11 with less than three minutes to go and then down to 67-58 after a steal for a layup by Teetzel in the closing seconds, but the Eagles did enough damage earlier to hang on for the much-needed win.

The Eagles will travel to take on undefeated Waseca, 15-0 and ranked second in Class AA, in a 7:30 p.m. Tuesday Big South Conference game.

NOTE: A full story with player comments and photo will be available in Tuesday’s edition of The Journal and online.