With a dominant effort in the paint and a relentless full-court defensive pressure, the top-seeded Tigers held off the second-seeded Eagles 82-69 on Gus Young Court to earn a trip to this year’s state tournament.

Senior Morgan Hulke led the Eagles with 19 points, while Brooklyn Lewis had 17 points and five rebounds. Seniors Ramsey Hopp and Maddie Backer added 11 points and 8 points, respectively.

Reese Drake and Avery Schneekloth led Marshall with 20 points apiece, while Avery Fahl had 18 points. Taleigha Bigler had 13 assists and eight rebounds.

The Eagles showed off why they were at the big dance to begin with, taking a 10-point lead over Marshall in the first half. But the Tigers were quick to match that effort and took a 40-37 lead into the half thanks in large part to their full-court man defense and

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Morgan Hulke (3) puts up a layup in the second half of the Section 2AAA Girls Basketball Tournament championship game against Marshall on Wednesday at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. Hulke led the Eagles in the game with 19 points.

“I thought we did a nice job of getting the ball up the court,” Eagles head coach Julie Rogers said. “We maybe didn’t get a shot every single time that we wanted to, but our game plan was to make sure that we played some really good help defense against Drake and Bigler and I think we did that. Our offensive plan was to run a new offense that we’ve been practicing a few weeks. We did a nice job of running that and setting some good screens. The kids never gave up, which was just fabulous. They’re an awesome group of girls to coach.”

Marshall’s ability to keep their post players fed in the 5-11 Schneekloth and 6-foot Fahl, who continuously rolled to the basket and found open shots off of fast breaks.

“We knew that we had to play defense against the drive and the 3 from Bigler and Drake,” Rogers said. “But when we do that, they capitalized on it where we maybe had to hedge a little bit and recover or switch on a screen and they roll to the hoop and then they hit their teammate going to the basket.

“It just takes a lot of great timing on the help-side defense and we got caught a couple times tonight not getting over quick enough or we did get over and we fouled them so they wouldn’t make the bucket. But those girls rolling to the basket aren’t 5-8 either.”

The Eagles did limit Bigler to just 4 points on 1 of 8 shooting, but her passing led to several open buckets that hurt the Eagles in the end.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Maddie Backer dribbles the ball up the court during the Section 2AAA girls basketball title game at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. Backer finished her final high school basketball game with 8 points.

The Eagles started out hot. After forcing a Marshall turnover on its first possession, Backer drove into the paint and fooled the defenders with a pass fake to the wing before scoring on a layup for a 2-0 lead. Hulke then found Hopp for a 3 and a 5-0 New Ulm lead.

After Marshall got its first bucket of the night from Drake on a layup, Lewis cashed in a 3 for an 8-2 New Ulm lead. The Tigers pressed the entire first half, however, forcing some New Ulm turnovers in the process and taking a 12-10 lead after a layup by Schneekloth.

The teams traded buckets until an 8-0 run that started with a Backer layup and ended with 3s from Morgan Hulke and Betsy Joyce gave New Ulm a double-digit lead, 28-18.

The Tigers worked the ball inside effectively after that, getting a 10-0 run to tie the game and force a New Ulm timeout with 4:02 left in the opening half. The Eagles got a 2-point lead back after that on two different occasions, but the Tigers got the last points of the half when Schneekloth converted an and-one with 26.2 seconds left to put Marshall up 40-37 at halftime.

The Tigers continued their full-court defense in the second half and were quick to jump out to a double-digit lead, with a 10-0 run putting them up 57-42. Moments later, the Tigers were up 20, 63-43, after a Fahr bucket. The Eagles whittled away at the deficit, however, cutting it down to 12, 76-64, on a Hulke 3 with less than four minutes to play.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau The New Ulm Eagles pose with their Section 2AAA runners-up plaque following the championship game with Marshall on Wednesday night at Gustavus Adolphus College. For more photos and a game story, see 1B. Front row (l-r): Grace Barie, Ramsey Hopp, Maddie Backer, Morgan Hulke, Riley Wilson, Jordan Boettger, Mckenna Hulke. Back row: Brooklyn Lewis, Keira Sullivan, Leah Brustad, Maggie Joyce, Betsy Joyce, Lexie Goff, Jesalyn Skoglund.

The Tigers slowed it down and earned some trips to the foul line in the closing minutes to hold on.

Despite the loss, it was a long road for the Eagles to get this far as the New Ulm girls basketball program hadn’t been to the section title game since 2017, a 61-56 loss to Waseca. The Eagles, led by their three seniors this year and a crop of talented juniors and underclassmen, made it one step further than they did a year ago and gave their fans plenty to cheer about this year.

“This is a group of kids that — they play summer ball, they’re in the gym in the offseason, they play AAU ball,” Rogers said. “They’re the kids that are watching film at home. Very high basketball IQ from all three of my seniors. When we got back here and we’re getting off the bus for the last time, we’ve got younger kids that have been impacted so much by this group and your work ethic and how you come to practice every day ready to get better. It’s obvious that these kids have impacted their teammates and that’s what you want from your senior group.”

The Eagles finish the season 21-8, while the Tigers moved to 27-1 and will play in the Class AAA state tournament beginning March 12.