ABOVE: Martin County West’s Lucas Larson drives the baseline after a screen by teammate Kane Sharp in a nonconference game against New Ulm Cathedral on Saturday in Sherburn.

SHERBURN – Despite its physical squad, New Ulm Cathedral couldn’t slow the attack of Martin County West on Saturday as the Mavericks secured the 52-37 win in a nonconference boys basketball game.

“Our defense was really good [today],” said head coach Phillip Rotunda. “When you hold a team like that to 37 … and we probably gave them about 10, it felt like, on just the skills and layups there, too. So, they had to earn that there. So, I was really proud of our defense.”

Leading the Mavericks was Josh Roben with 13 points, while Kale Larson had 11 points. Lucas Larson had 9 points, while Jacob Wilmes had 6 points. Kane Sharp and Jerimiah Olson each had 5 points.

Wilmes opened the scoring quickly in the first half, driving hard through the paint for the layup. The Mavericks dictated the pace of play early, moving the ball quickly on offense and not letting Cathedral to the inside. With the inside lane taken away early, Eli Anderson and Jack Edwards each hit a shot from beyond the arc to gain Cathedral’s first and only lead of the game, 6-4. Roben quickly tied things up before the Mavericks showed off their perimeter shooting, with both Kale and Lucas Larson draining shots to put the Mavericks up 12-6. From then on the plan of attack seemed clear – to draw the defenders to the inside, kick the ball back out and take the open shot. This strategy was proving effective for the Mavericks and as they added to point total, their defense was disruptive enough to keep Cathedral’s scoring at a snail’s pace.

Cathedral called a timeout at the midway point of the half down 24-13. Kale Larson drained a pair of 3-pointers out of the timeout and was followed by a bucket from Roben to go up 32-14. In the final four minutes, the Cathedral offense seemingly got rolling and were able to add 9 points to the scoreboard, but the Mavericks carried the lead into the half up 32-23.

“When they’re going to pack it in on our bigs, there are guys on the outside just got to be ready to shoot,” said Rotunda. “At the end of the day, they were, Cathedral was a physical team going through it there, and then it just was tough with all that there.”

Both teams’ scoring slowed considerably in the second half, but the Mavericks struck first in the final frame courtesy of a Roben bucket to go up 34-23. The half quickly became a defensive battle with both teams trying to find an open shot. Cathedral had made the adjustment to the Mavericks’ attack and found success for a while. Olsen kicked off an 8-0 run that put MCW up 49-33 as the final minutes approached. Cathedral added 4 more points to the scoreboard before a free throw by Roben brought the scoring to a close and the Mavericks secured the victory.

Saturday’s win moved the Mavericks to 9-16 overall and 5-7 in conference play.