Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Brooklyn Lewis goes up for a shot through contact during a nonconference girls basketball game against New London-Spicer Tuesday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — It took an extra four minutes of overtime to do it, but New Ulm put an end New London-Spicer’s undefeated season on Tuesday with a 82-79 win in nonconference girls basketball action.

“We really wanted this one,” New Ulm’s Brooklyn Lewis said. “We worked really hard last week and this week in practice for this one.”

The Wildcats had won their first 23 games of the season, but a strong second half and overtime period by the Eagles led New Ulm to a victory.

“They’ve got some good outside shooters, they’ve got lots of height, they crash the boards really well,” New Ulm head coach Julie Rogers said. “And that zone press is very effective if you’re not ready to handle it. We practiced this whole week getting ready for that kind of pressure, and that’s one of the things that helped us is that we were ready for that press.”

The Wildcats also entered the game ranked third in Class AA.

Lewis was a game-wrecker in the win, scoring 31 points with four rebounds, all while playing disruptive defense along with multiple steals that led to points on the other end for the Eagles.

“Just having the teammates that have my back,” Lewis said. “I always know they have my back, and having them to support me and just having them there in general. Its fun to play with them.”

Lewis played nearly the game, only sitting for a short rest in the second half.

“I didn’t give her a break in the first half and I gave her a little bit of a break in the second half,” Rogers said. “I’m always a tiny bit concerned that she’s going to cramp because she’s playing so hard.

“But there were enough timeouts that she got a little bit of hydration so she could play. But to step up there at the end of the game too, exhausted and having played almost 40 minutes of often times full-court play, to stand up there and drain those free throws was absolutely the icing on the cake. That was fabulous. Really proud of her. She had a great game.”

Also for New Ulm, Morgan Hulke had 17 points and seven rebounds, while Maggie Joyce had 10 points.

Ava Carlson led NLS with 30 points.

New Ulm also found success by spreading out the offense and getting shots to fall in the second half.

“We pulled our guards out a little further on offense, and it created some gaps so we could pass the ball inside,” Rogers said. “I didn’t think we shot tremendously well in the first half, but in the second half the shots started to drop. And the defense, we upped it a level. The girls really went after the steals and ran a full-court press with the trap.

“They executed our game plan. If you go look at our whiteboard in the weight room where we meet pregame and you go down the list of things we wanted to accomplish tonight, I think we checked off several boxes. Really pleased and proud of how they played tonight.”

After NLS forced overtime, Lewis got a steal and a layup to open the scoring in extra time. NLS tied it, however, with a layup from Carlson.

Hulke hit a 3-pointer to take the lead once more, and defense dominated for much of the middle stretch in overtime. Delzer broke the dry spell with a free throw, but NLS found itself down 2 with just 26 seconds to play. Hulke hit a free throw in the double bonus after an intentional foul with 23.3 seconds to go, and Lewis got a steal and was fouled on the next Wildcats possession. Lewis hit both of her free throws, and while NLS’s Ayla Caskey managed to hit a layup with four seconds to play, New Ulm successfully inbounded the ball to Backer, who ran out the clock for the win.

New Ulm’s Maddie Backer opened up the game with a 3-pointer as New Ulm led early with a 15-11 advantage. However, NLS went on a 10-3 run to go up 21-18. The teams traded buckets for several possessions, but the Wildcats gradually increased their lead to 35-27 as New Ulm called a timeout with 2:31 to play in the half. The Eagles fought back, going on a 6-0 run to end the half. Backer’s final-second shot to tie just rattled out before halftime, meaning NLS went into the break with a 39-36 lead.

New Ulm came out in the second half sharper, starting with a mid-range shot from Lewis.

“I think we stayed together and worked together as a team,” Lewis said. “We really moved the ball at the end there, got some quality shots. I think that we picked it up on defense, played good defense and worked together as a team.”

New Ulm tied the game at 43 on a 3-point shot from Hulke, then took a 46-45 lead on another 3 from Backer. New Ulm continued to push, going on a 10-4 run starting with a 3-pointer from Joyce and ending on a mid-range shot from Lewis. Lewis seemed automatic from the mid-range during the stretch, consistently generating points from 8 to 14 feet throughout the second half.

New Ulm went up 63-53 on another 3 from Joyce for its largest lead of the game. However, the Wildcats pushed back, cutting the lead down to 70-68 on a layup from Carlson. The teams battled back and forth until NLS’s Katelyn Delzer hit a layup to tie the game at 74. Once again, a 3-pointer at the buzzer just missed for New Ulm as Morgan Hulke’s corner shot rattled out, sending the game to overtime.

New Ulm (15-7) travels to St. James Area on Thursday.