NEW ULM — Early in the second half of the Mayer Lutheran-New Ulm Cathedral boys basketball game, Mayer Lutheran — who had already built up a 40-27 halftime lead — increased that lead to 47-30.

But Cathedral staged a second-half comeback that saw the Greyhounds tie the game at 64-64 before falling to the Crusaders 68-64 in a nonconference game.

Ben Lindesmith and Joshua Clark each ended with 16 points for the Crusaders (7-6).

Jake Finstad led Cathedral (5-10) with a game-high 21 points. Eli Anderson netted 17 and Colin Anderson 11.

“We had a lot of different people made some really big plays in the second half,” Cathedral head coach Alan Woitas said. “Jake [Finstad] kind of carried us in the first half [17 points] and he really made some good decisions to give his teammate some good looks in the second half. So proud of our efforts — we had plenty of opportunities to quit but found ways to make it competitive and have a chance at the end.”

But a close game was hardly expected after the first half performance by both teams.

Mayer Lutheran jumped to a 19-7 lead with 11:15 left in the first half and increased that to a 37-22 lead before closing out the first half with that 13 point lead.

“They made a lot of shots out of the gate and we did not do a good job of contesting those shots,” Woitas said.

Cathedral was cold from beyond the arc, making just 5 of 15.

But early in the second half, the Greyhounds, who play at Mankato Loyola on Saturday, started a comeback.

Cathedral had cut the lead to 47-39 before Mayer Lutheran built the lead to 54-41.

But the Greyhounds outscored the Crusaders 10-2 to pull to within 54-46 thanks to a Rylan Koopmann 3 followed by a basket from Koopmann.

Two free throws from Eli Anderson had the Greyhounds down 56-51.

“Our guys found a way to crawl back in it,” Woitas said. “We had different people make shots in that comeback — we did not turn the ball over.”

Mayer Lutheran regained some momentum to take a 64-56 lead but Cathedral again staged a comeback.

3s from Jack Edwards and Eli Anderson were sandwiched around a Colin Anderson basket to tie the game at 64-64 before Mayer closed out the game.

“It is a little bit of a valley right now, so we have to stay together and make sure we continue to compete and use the opportunities to get better,” Woitas said. “Ultimately knowing our section it is going to be pretty competitive one through 14. We have to find ways to put ourselves in the best position at the end of February to have a chance.”