Photo by Brady Dennis New Ulm Cathedral’s Brock Carlson tries a hook shot in the paint over Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop’s Cole Jacobson during a Tomahawk Division boys basketball game on Tuesday at Cathedral High School. Also pictured right is GFW’s Luke Bastian (13).

NEW ULM — New Ulm Cathedral head boys basketball coach Alan Woitas was pretty blunt about his team’s performance Tuesday night against Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop in a Tomahawk Division game.

“We just got out-played,” he said. “They outworked us on the defensive and the offensive end — we were a step slow most of the night — and that was because we started slow.”

That led to a convincing 64-41 win for the Thunderbirds.

Cole Jacobsen led GFW (8-13, 5-8) with a game-high 35 points, while Easton Taylor added 12.

“We had a good night shooting the basketball,” GFW head coach Ryan Jacobson said. “I thought we just wanted to be patient and try to get ourselves a little bit deeper into the clock. When we’re struggling, we’re shooting quick and when those shots go, it’s great, but when they’re not going, you’ve got to get deeper in the clock and make them have to defend a little bit.

“I thought the guys did a nice job of being patient, getting multiple ball reversals and it was a night where we were able to knock down a few from the perimeter.”

Brock Carlson led Cathedral (9-13, 7-8) with 10 points.

GFW jumped to a fast 11-0 lead before Carlson got the first Greyhounds points of the game.

But the Thunderbirds upped their lead to 20-8 on two free throws from Clayton Karg.

“We struggled to make shots and their length bothered us,” Woitas said. “We need to get better and I have to find ways to get ourselves in a better spots to score the basketball.”

Woitas said that slow starts have become the norm in the last few games for the Greyhounds.

“We were down 19-1 to start last game and 11-0 this game,” he said. “We cannot do that come playoff time and expect to be in the game. So we have to figure that out and we have four games to do it.”

Cole Jacobson was the biggest thorn in the side for the Greyhounds as he scored 16 of the Thunderbirds’ 35 halftime points.

The Greyhounds, who had cut GFW’s lead to 35-28,saw that deficit grow as the Thunderbirds — as they had to open the game — went on a scoring spurt.

They out-scored Cathedral 16-8 to take a 51-36 lead capped by a 3 from Taylor.

Meanwhile, the Greyhounds tried to get back in the game with the three-point shot but missed on all 15 of their shots from beyond the arc.

“We struggled to score the ball,” Woitas said. “We struggled to get flow so we need to move the ball better and attack the hoop and finish our moves.”

Coach Jacobson said his team’s defensive focus went on Cathedral’s 3-point shooters and it paid off.

“That was our focus, Finstad and the Andersons, I’ve seen them fill it up,” coach Jacobson said. “I’ve seen them get hot and they’re just going to shoot you out of the gym. So we paid extra attention to those three and we were able to have the ball bounce our way a few times tonight.”

GFW made it a 60-37 lead on two free throws from Cole Jacobson before the 6-foot-7 junior added two more baskets to end the game.

“We left their two best players get away from us a little bit and we did not shoot the ball well,” Woitas said. “But we have to find a way defensively to stay in and we did not do that tonight. And we have to figure out why we are having slow starts to games.”

The Greyhounds are at Springfield Thursday, while the Thunderbirds host Wabasso on Thursday.