Blake-to-Blake connection

If opposing defenders drop back to guard Schueller rolling to the basket, Steffl is happy to take a shot or feed one of his other many shooters on the wing. If defenses leave the 6-5 Schueller space to get to the hoop and catch a pass from Steffl, Schueller will happily put points on the board himself.

Steffl, who is averaging 21.8 points and 10.2 assists per game this season, said he’s happy to have a lot of scoring options available but that he and Schueller have really fed off of each other’s skills.

“Me and him really compliment each other,” Steffl said. “We do a lot of solo pick-and-rolls with me and him. When we played Lester Prairie, I had 33 points and it’s because they stopped him and left the lane open for me. And even off of that, I’m a guy that gets to the paint a lot and if they try to stop the paint, I have shooters like Zach [Sandgren] and Aaron [Heidemann] and Carson [Schiller] and they knock down shots.

“But me and Blake really compliment each other and have a connection where if I throw it anywhere near the rim, he’s going to get it and he’s going to put it up. And he works hard on the defensive end, he’s kind of the shot blocker, rebounder. It’s very rare when he doesn’t have 20 and 10 each night. It helps a lot when you have a guy like that.”

File photo by Travis Rosenau
Cedar Mountain’s Blake Steffl (2) passes the ball out of traffic during a boys basketball game last season at New Ulm Cathedral on Jan. 9, 2024.

Schueller, who is averaging 28.2 ppg and 12.7 rebounds per game, said Steffl’s passing has gotten better over the years and it’s paying of well so far.

“He’s gotten better over the years since sophomore year to now,” Schueller said. “We’ve been learning together and he’s gotten a lot better at passing the ball, obviously … he just knows when to throw the ball and I just try to get open, so it’s easy for him to dump it off or take that nice floater he has.”

The Cougars, who took down previously-ranked Springfield on the Tigers’ home court Monday, now sit at 6-0 early in the season and the Blake-to-Blake connection is one big reason for it. The Cougars’ 66-60 win at Springfield helped lift them to be ranked No. 8 in Class A in the most recent prep polls.

“I love the target on our back that kind of brings us,” Steffl said. “Even now that kind of shows that our hard work is getting noticed. But this ranking doesn’t really mean anything if we can’t prove it, so we just have to come every night and show why we are ranked and do what we do.”

Schueller is averaging 28.2 ppg and 12.7 rebounds per game this season.

“We really just have gotten a lot better defensively,” Schueller said. “Over the season we’ve gotten pretty good defensively. Offensively, we’ve been moving the ball pretty well and finding the open guy and making shots.”

Schueller and Steffl are certainly two of those shotmakers for the Cougars, but they’ve also been able to rely on Zach Sandgren (12.5 ppg) and Carson Schiller (11.2 ppg).

“Our whole starting five has played together for years upon years and we have four seniors starting and a junior,” Steffl said. “Even the people off the bench are juniors, so we’re kind of a tight-knit group. We’re all friends and we all have a good time and our chemistry is really good. We don’t get rattled easily and we just stick together.”

The senior duo also recently passed 1,000 career points, with Schueller’s 1,000-point milestone coming in a win at Lester Prairie on Dec. 6.

“It’s been a goal for a while for me,” Schueller said. “My older brother, Trey Peterson-Juhl, he used to play and back in 2020 he got his. So it’s always been a goal for me to reach that milestone.”

Steffl’s 1,000th career point came at Cleveland this past Tuesday.

“Finally got the pressure off my shoulders and can kind of just start playing basketball and not be like, ‘When am I going to get my 1,000,’” Steffl said. “It’s a great thing to see that I’m among the top at Cedar Mountain of who scores 1,000 and it’s amazing to see how my hard work over the years has transitioned to this.”

While the Cougars have beaten six teams so far, their win at Springfield stands out the most for their players and fans.

Schueller said that win was a game they were looking forward to and that the win gave them an early boost of confidence.

“[Springfield is] a great team, they’ve got a lot of skilled players like Brayden Sturm, obviously,” Schueller said. “Bryan Buerkle, he’s also a great big man [for the Tigers]. But I feel like winning that game really means a lot for us because we’ve been looking forward to that game since the start of the year and it’s a big win for us.

“Now we have all the confidence for the next couple games here like a game [Friday] against Sleepy Eye Public. That should be another good one and hopefully win that one and keep it going.”

The Cougars host Sleepy Eye next at 7:30 p.m. Friday in a Tomahawk-Valley Conference, Tomahawk Division game.