NEW ULM - Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Thunderbirds boys basketball player Seth Schuette gave the Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers a trey-ning lesson on Friday night.
Schuette nailed eight 3-pointers and helped stave off a fierce MVL comeback in the second half as the Thunderbirds took down the Chargers 70-57 in Tomahawk Conference action.
"We didn't make enough shots underneath and we had way too many turnovers in the first half," MVL coach Craig Morgan said. "We left quite a few points on the court, but the guys still really played hard."
Staff photo by Steve Muscatello
Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Eric Westphal takes a shot as Brett VanMaasdam (32) of Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop defends on the play during the second half Friday at MVL.
For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com
Indeed, it took a while for either offense to get going, with the Thunderbirds holding just a 2-1 lead four minutes into the contest. Schuette then began his shooting display, with three treys eventually putting GFW up 13-6.
But a bigger problem for the Chargers was turnovers, with 12 of them in the first nine minutes. The Thunderbirds scored 10 points off those turnovers and showed off some crisp passing underneath that seemed to catch MVL flat-footed. Up 28-17, Schuette would score the next six points to move the GFW margin to 34-17, then hit a three at the buzzer to give the Thunderbirds a 39-21 halftime lead after the Chargers committed their 15th turnover with 10 seconds left.
While MVL's Jacob Hoffman scored the first five points of the second half, Brett VanMaasdam would get the next seven for GFW to open a 46-26 lead. At this point, the Chargers could have either packed it in for a blowout of fight back.
They decided on the latter, scoring the next eight out of eleven points to cut the lead to 49-38. Down 52-40, MVL would go on another eight point run to make it 52-48 with less than seven minutes left in the game. Schuette interrupted the comeback with a three-point play, then a 3-pointer and the Thunderbirds gave themselves a bit of breathing room, up 58-50.
With 4:00 left and leading 61-51, GFW slowed down the play, forcing MVL to begin fouling. But the Chargers weren't done yet, with Nick Dewanz scoring six in a row on two buckets and two foul shots, the first one after grabbing two offensive rebounds. So, with 1:53 left, the score stood at 63-57 and it was going to be up to the Thunderbirds free throw shots to seal the game. They hit seven of their final ten free shots, while MVL committed two more costly turnovers in the final two minutes to give GFW the win.
Schuette led all scorers with 31 points, with Lee Sullivan adding 13. The Chargers Hoffman and Chad Lease each scored 15, with Seth Kroells adding 12.
MVL resumes play at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when it hosts Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart, while GFW hosts Cedar Mountain/Comfrey at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday night.