MANKATO — A whopping 76 years of basketball at the Mankato West gym came to an end Tuesday night when No. 5 seeded New Ulm defeated No. 4 seeded West 61-56 in a Section 2AAA boys quarterfinal clash.
West (11-16) couldn’t overcome a stagnant start even though the Scarlets overcame an early 16-4 deficit to gain a 46-40 lead on sophomore guard Ryan Steinke’s top-of-the-key 3-pointer with 8:21 remaining. After senior guard Ryan Hendrickson’s two foul shots expanded the margin to 50-43 a minute later, the Eagles (14-12) went on a 12-4 run to go ahead 55-54 on Joey Wise’s three-point play with 2:21 left.
“We’ve started out badly in many games this year,” West coach Jeremy Drexler said. “It seems to be a mental thing where we don’t come out and play with the level of intensity we need to. We did a good job of battling back in the first half and then getting a lead in the second half, but then we stopped playing and gave up too many turnovers and offensive boards.
“We kind of let them get to the rim a little bit and just didn’t make enough plays to win the game. We can’t use being young as an excuse any more. The seniors can’t wait for everyone to catch up. We just didn’t play with the consistency we needed to on a night in and night out basis. … I felt we could play with anybody, but we needed everyone playing well for that to happen.”
After sophomore Evan Senske’s slicing drive to the cup gave the Scarlets a 56-55 advantage with 1:58 to go, the Eagles converted six free throws, four from Levi Hopp and a pair from Mitchell Hopp, over the final 52 seconds to gain the victory. Mitchell Hopp scored a team-best 19 points for the winners, who also received 17 points from Levi Hopp and 15 more from Owen Castleman.
“We shared the ball with good passing,” Mitchell Hopp said. “We came out with high energy and just played good team basketball. We weren’t talking as well in the second half and they were able to get some mismatches down low. We were able to fix it and come up with a big win. This will give us momentum moving forward and we’re just going to have to come out and play our game.”
New Ulm got off to its quick start behind four baskets from Castleman along with 3-pointers from Mitchell and Levi Hopp. West began to get back in the game as freshman forward Mal Jock put through 12 of his team-best 16 points. Senior guard Ryan Hendrickson chipped in a trio of driving hoops before Jock’s 3-pointer pulled the Scarlets within 28-27 at the break.
“We were able to get out of the big hole we dug but we couldn’t close things out,” said Hendrickson, who ended up with 14 points. “They came out with more energy and it seemed like they wanted it more than we did. They were able to get some offensive rebounds towards the end which hurt us.”
New Ulm connected on 22 of 49 from the field for 44.8% compared to the Scarlets’ 24 of 50 for 48%. The Eagles held a 29-28 rebounding edge and committed fewer turnovers 12-6, including none over the final 18 minutes. Senske tallied nine points for the Scarlets while Steinke and Gus Schweim added six points each.
“West plays some physical basketball and they are good in their half-court defense,” New Ulm coach Michael Poncalet said. “They were able to control the tempo because we like to play super fast. We were able to take advantage of the slower pace to keep the twins in and not go so deep into our bench.”
New Ulm faces top-seeded Mankato East Saturday in a 5 p.m. semifinal clash at the East gym.