Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Sydney Windschitl (5) of Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s is fouled by Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Emma Nelson during the second half Monday at MVL.

NEW ULM — Despite an improved shot selection in the second half of Monday night’s Tomahawk Conference girls’ basketball game, Minnesota Valley Lutheran couldn’t contain Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s down the stretch and suffered a 64-47 loss as a result.

It was arguably the toughest test of the year for the Chargers (5-4, 3-1), and despite the final score, they made a game of it.

MVL tied it at 6 in the opening minutes with a 3 by Abbie Riederer before the Knights (8-2, 5-1) went on a 9-0 run to force an MVL timeout with 11:56 to go in the half. During the Knights’ run, Madison Mathiowetz dropped in three straight buckets, the last one being a 3.

The Knights prevented the Chargers from getting easy looks inside early on, only allowing the Chargers to get their first bucket in the paint with 6:43 left in the first half after a bucket inside by Emma Nelson, who finished the game with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

“We were settling for a lot of shots from the outside that we didn’t have to settle for,” MVL head coach Rollin Timm said. “We could have gotten some more shots on the inside, but give them [St. Mary’s] credit, though, they’ve got some very good players on that team and those three players [Mathiowetz, Sydney Windschitl, Cassie Heinrichs] carried their team again as they have all year.”

Mathiowetz led the Knights with 27 points, eight rebounds and three steals, while Windschitl had 14 points, six boards, two assists and two steals. Heinrichs added 9 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals, while Alexa Owens grabbed eight rebounds.

MVL trailed by as much as 11 in the first half and cut its deficit to 2 after a bucket inside by Emma Nelson, but the Knights led 25-21 at the half.

The Knights started the second half out on a 6-0 run to grab another double-digit lead, 31-21, after a jumper by Lexie Anderson, a bucket inside by Mathiowetz and a putback bucket by Reagan Severson. A 7-0 run by MVL with less than five minutes to play had the Chargers trailing 51-44, but the Knights adjusted after a timeout and played keep away effectively, grabbing several easy points at the free-throw line late on their way to the win.

“I thought we handled their press real effectively, I think we only had a few turnovers out of their press and that was going to be key for us,” Knights head coach Bruce Woitas said. “I thought in the first half, we were giving them too many second chances, they were getting to the glass a little bit and I thought the second half we did a much better job at limiting them to one opportunity … then we just kept on pushing the tempo. We did some nice things, utilized some mismatches on the inside, I thought we did a good job getting the ball inside when we needed to and we shot really well from the foul line.”

MVL got 12 points from Riederer, five assists from Maddie Pearson, eight rebounds from Lauren Paulsen and six rebounds from Lexi Fischer.