trosenau@nujournal.com

NEW ULM — The pack might be smaller this season, but the New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds showed off how big their bark and bite could be Tuesday on Senior Night.

Led by senior Maddie Gilles’ season-high 29 points, the Greyhounds also scored their season high in points as they ran past Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop 70-41 in a Tomahawk-Valley Conference, Tomahawk Division game.

The Greyhounds’ previous season-high in points came in a 65-52 home win over Wabasso on Feb. 1.

Maddie Gilles

“As a team I figured that we’d go out there and play hard, especially since it was Senior Night,” Gilles said. “Everybody was pretty fired up.”

The Greyhounds have just nine varsity players this season and the team’s only other senior Olivia Macho added 5 points Tuesday. While Macho didn’t fill up the scorebook, her aggressive defense helped the Greyhounds set the tone early and carry it into the second half as they applied a full-court trap from start to finish.

“[Our defense] was something we’ve been working on for a while and I think just sticking with it, even when it might not be working every single time, we just have to keep at it because it’s been one of our strongest defenses,” Macho said.

Shay Wilfahrt added 17 points for the Greyhounds, while Jayde Altermatt had 13 points.

GFW was led by Taylor Bauer’s 15 points, while Nicole Duehn had 6 points.

Olivia Macho

Gilles’ first of seven 3s she hit in the game put her team up 10-4, but Bauer answered on the other end with an and-one. A bucket in the paint by Keyden Buboltz had the Thunderbirds down 11-9, but Gilles sank back-to-back 3s to put her team up 17-9.

“We were trying to get corners open when they were in zone,” Gilles said. “When they were in man, we were just kind of running our zero.”

A 10-0 run had the Greyhounds up 27-12 before a Trinity Stearns free throw ended the run to have GFW down 27-13. That free throw helped the Thunderbirds start what turned into a 7-2 run to end the half as they trailed 29-19 at halftime.

The Thunderbirds allowed the Greyhounds to extend their lead to 34-21 in the second half before a 9-1 run that ended on a 3 by Bauer had GFW down 35-31. During that run, Altermatt picked her fourth foul of the game with 14:34 left to play and was forced to take a seat for a few minutes.

Thing unraveled for GFW in a hurry after that as the Greyhounds’ press began to pick up again and create numerous turnovers for points in transition. Gilles hit a 3 to start what turned into a 10-0 run and the run ended on a 3 by Altermatt, forcing GFW to burn a timeout down 47-31.

Moments later, back-to-back GFW turnovers allowed Gilles to hit back-to-back 3s and put the Greyhounds up 58-33. Another Gilles 3 and a layup by Wilfahrt gave the Greyhounds a 63-35 lead. Gilles was fouled on a late 3 and hit all three free throws to give the Greyhounds their largest lead of the night at 70-38. A Kelly Willegal 3 then gave GFW and the game its final points.

The Greyhounds finish Tomahawk play 4-12 and moved to 6-18 overall with the win, while the Thunderbirds dropped to 4-19 overall and 2-13 in the Tomahawk.

Cathedral is at Nicollet on Thursday for a 5:45 p.m. game, while GFW is at Sibley East for a 7:15 p.m. game Thursday.