NEW ULM — When things go well for the New Ulm Cathedral boys basketball team, it looks a lot like its 61-45 win over Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther Friday in Tomahawk-Valley Conference crossover action.

“Defensively, our effort was really good,” Cathedral head coach Alan Woitas said. “I thought we were locked in to what we needed to do to be successful. And we rebounded the ball really well too. We didn’t give them a lot of second-chance opportunities. So credit to our guys for coming out with some energy and some urgency tonight.”

Not only were the Greyhounds tenacious defensively, but they also had a strong shooting night, hitting 10 of 25 shots from behind the arc as a team.

“When we’re rotating the ball, getting the ball inside, then we get in-rhythm 3s,” Cathedral’s Eli Anderson said. “Just in-rhythm, catch-and-shoot like we do in practice every day.”

Eli Anderson and Jake Finstad each had 17 points for Cathedral, with Finstad adding eight rebounds and Elia Anderson notching four assists. Rylan Koopmann added 9 points, while Joe Gillis had 8 points and five rebounds.

GHEC/T/ML struggled to get going offensivley, not being able to match Cathedral’s hot shooting.

“We’re just missing all sorts of shots that we’ve been hitting over the past couple of months,” GHEC/T/ML head coach Brian Borkenhagen said. “Credit to Cathedral’s defense, they’re playing scrappy and feisty and playing hard defense, making the shots difficult. But we were certainly as cold as we’ve been since December. That happens in basketball sometimes, but they played great.”

Brody Grathwohl led the Jaguars with 12 points and five rebounds, while Jack Madsen had 10 points and six rebounds. Eli Jensen and Bryce Borkenhagen each had 8 points.

The Jaguars took an early lead, going up 8-2 on a 3-pointer by Jensen. Cathedral came back to tie it at 14 as Finstad hit the Greyhounds’ first 3-pointer. That shot was part of a 15-0 run that ended with a 3-pointer by Finstad to go up 22-14. Grathwohl ended the run with a 3-pointer, but GHEC/T/ML called a timeout with 3:04 to play as Gillis made a layup to put Cathedral up 27-14. The teams traded buckets for a few possessions, but Grathwohl converted a 4-point play after being fouled on a made 3-pointer right before halftime as the Greyhounds took a 33-23 lead into the break.

Cathedral didn’t cool down in the second half, opening the scoring for the Greyhounds with a 3-pointer from Koopmann after a 3-pointer from the Jaguars. That soon led to a 13-0 run by the Greyhounds as a layup from Jack Edwards put Cathedral up 54-33.

Bryce Borkenhagen ended the run with a layup before a Jaguars timeout with 5:38 to play, but Eli Anderson made a layup through a foul to keep it rolling for Cathedral. Colin Anderson made on final 3-pointer for Cathedral to go up 62-39, and while Jensen made a 3-pointer and Reagan Emmert made a layup for GHEC/T/ML, subs entered soon after as Cathedral sealed the victory.

Cathedral, now 10-15, has one final regular season game at Martin County West on Saturday before turning to the postseason.

“I think today is kind of a blueprint on how we can be successful come playoff time,” Woitas said. “We can’t turn the ball over, we need to play with great effort defensively and find ways to piece together stops. And we’ve got to rebound the ball. Different guys made shots throughout the night. We had multiple guys score, and that’s going to have to be a part of it too.”