That something great came in the form of a 15-point comeback in the second half as the second-seeded Eagles battled back to top the third-seeded St. Peter Saints 65-64 in the Section 2AAA Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals.

Junior guard Brooklyn Lewis was one of several heroes in the end for New Ulm as her drive right into the paint for a layup ended up being the game-winning bucket. The Saints took a timeout right after the layup with 12.8 second left, but the Eagles buckled down on defense to prevent a shot and hold on for the comeback win.

“Our goal was to kind of get to the line and get free throws and then make out free throws,” Lewis said. “We were struggling a little bit with our free throws, but we just kept going, and the three seniors that we have, every time I drove I was like, ‘I’m not letting the season be done for them. This is our season and I want to do it with these three seniors.’ So just do it for them.”

Lewis finished the game with 13 points and three rebounds.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Maddie Backer watches a 3 of hers drop in the second half of Saturday night’s Section 2AAA girls basketball semifinals game against St. Peter at Gustavus Adolphus College. Backer scored her 1,000th career point in a 65-64 semifinals win and 15 points total on the night. New Ulm’s Morgan Hulke raises her hand in victory as the New Ulm Eagles celebrate following a 65-64 Section 2AA semifinals win over St. Peter on Saturday at Gustavus Adolphus College.

The Eagles now will play the top-seeded Marshall Tigers in the section title game at 7 p.m. Wednesday back at Gustavus.

Maddie Backer, who entered the game needing 2 points to hit 1,000 for her career, finished the game with 15 points. She got her 1,000th and 1,001st career points on a layup with 8:25 left in the first half to put the Eagles in front 16-15.

The Eagles would have liked to have gotten Backer’s milestone out of the way earlier, but the Saints were equally tough defensively. New Ulm didn’t help itself with missed bunnies and free throws as they missed a handful of layups and buckets in the paint and went 7 of 13 at the charity stripe in the first half.

The Eagles trailed 5-0 to start the game, and after taking the lead on a free throw from Betsy Joyce, Backer had her shot at 1,000 career points with a trip to the foul line with 12:54 to play in the opening half. She hit the first free throw but was off on the second, putting New Ulm up 7-5. When Backer passed the 1,000-point mark, it was business as usual and the game went on as New Ulm fans let her hear their appreciation.

“Everyone knew I was 2 away from my 1,000th, but I didn’t really think of that,” Backer said. “I knew I would be able to get 2, it was just kind of the win. I started to get hot in the second half and I knew were down and when we were down by 10, and since I had the hot hand I just took some of the shots. That goes for anyone. Anyone who has the hot hand knows we’ve got to get them the ball to get them to shoot. That’s the great thing about this team, anyone can get the hot hand on any night.”

Backer did get hot in the second half and just in time.

After Annika Southworth hit back-to-back 3s to put her Saints up 59-54, the Eagles had less than nine minutes to mount a comeback if they didn’t want their season to end.

Backer connected on a 3 to have New Ulm down 12 and then Morgan Hulke hit a 3 of her own to make it a single-digit game again, 59-50. Hulke ended up leading the Eagles with 16 points and three rebounds.

After a free throw by Betsy Joyce, Backer found Hulke for a fast-break layup to have New Ulm down 59-53. After back-to-back St. Peter turnovers, Backer buried another 3 to have New Ulm down 59-56. Hulke then stole a pass and scored on a layup with just under three minutes to play to have the Eagles within 1 before a pick-and-roll pass from Lewis to Joyce put the Eagles in front, 60-59, giving New Ulm its first lead since leading 21-20 in the first half.

“At halftime we talked to each other and we were like, ‘We need to trust each other, we need to believe in each other and we need to work hard,'” Lewis said. “We came out in the second half, started a little rough, but then we got going again and we just trusted each other and that’s how we got the dub.”

Kylie Southworth hushed New Ulm fans momentarily with a 3 to regain the lead for the Saints and then she scored on a putback to make it a 64-60 game. But Backer’s fourth 3 of the second half and final of the game with 48 seconds left had her team down 1 and prompted Eagles head coach Julie Rogers to take a timeout. After St. Peter broke through an aggressive New Ulm full-court press, the Eagles were able to prevent any good shots by St. Peter and recovered the ball with less than 30 seconds to play, which led the Lewis’ game-winning layup off a screen from Joyce.

“I think when you’re struggling a little bit to get those shots to fall on offense, you make up for it on defense, you just work that much harder on defense,” Rogers said. “When we took a timeout or they took a timeout, the girls were just saying it to each other, ‘Let’s pick it up on defense. Stop being so timid, stop being so scared, let’s get after it.’

“As soon as they did that and pushed the ball up the court, we got a couple nice shots. We still missed a couple layups, we shouldn’t have been in the situation we were in, but that’s what does it. When the shots aren’t dropping, you’ve just got to be tenacious on defense and get after it and they did that.”

Earlier in the first half and following Backer’s free throw, the Saints went back up 5 before a Lewis jumper, a Hulke-to-Hopp layup on the fast break and Backer’s milestone layup put the Eagles up 16-15.

The Saints ended the half on a 9-0 run to extend their lead to 34-25 at halftime.

Betsy Joyce added 8 points and nine rebounds for New Ulm, while Hopp had 7 points and four rebounds and Maggie Joyce had three rebounds.

The Saints were led by Annika Southworth and Kylie Southworth, who each finished with 16 points, while Auden Anderson had 10 points.

The Eagles’ win was also a little payback on the Saints for last year’s section semifinals game where the Saints ended New Ulm’s season with a 78-70 win.

St. Peter finished this season with a 14-14 overall record, while the Eagles moved to 21-7.

The Eagles now have the tall task of taking down a strong Marshall team that defeated Mankato West 89-39 in the first semifinals game of the day at Gustavus on Saturday to move to 26-1 on the season.

While the Eagles lost to Marshall at home on Dec. 3, 2024, it was a close game as the Tigers eked out an 83-79 win. Marshall’s 80-53 win over New Ulm in Marshall on Jan. 16 saw the Eagles playing without a pair of key players, giving Backer more confidence that things can be different on Wednesday.

“I’d say Marshall hasn’t really seen New Ulm basketball play yet,” Backer said. “They played us our third game of the season and no one’s playing their good ball the third time of the season. The second time they saw us, Brooklyn and Leah [Brustad] were both gone. So Marshall hasn’t really seen New Ulm basketball yet, so I’m definitely excited for that game and I think it’s going to be a really good one.”