After defeating Nicollet 82-35 in the Tomahawk-Valley Conference title game at Nicollet High School on Feb. 17, the No. 1-seeded Knights topped the fourth-seeded Raiders two weeks later with a 93-52 win in the Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals at Gustavus Adolphus College.

The win moves the Knights (28-1) to a section finals game against second-seeded BOLD in a section finals rematch from last year at 6 p.m. Friday at Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Bresnan Arena.

Pre-sale tickets for Friday’s final will be available at St. Mary’s High School Wednesday until 3 p.m. Friday.

The Raiders finish their season 21-8.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Morgan Mathiowetz drives in for a layup during the first half of a Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals game against Nicollet on Monday at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.

Morgan Mathiowetz led the Knights with 47 points, seven assists, five rebounds and seven steals, while Olivia Schieffert had a double-double with 21 points and 10 assists while adding three steals.

Mathiowetz unsurprisingly led the Knights again in the scoring department, but many of her buckets came on cuts to the hoop that were assisted on by her eagle-eyed younger cousin Schieffert.

The two’s family and basketball bond has been a key for the Knights since their state tournament run last year.

“We’ve been playing with each other for how many years now, we’ve been playing since elementary and it just really helps when we have practices and we play together,” Schieffert said of Mathiowetz. “We’ve been playing varsity four, three-ish years now and we just have a great connection and I just always have confidence in her and I hope she has that confidence in me. I think she does, and now they I think she can trust me more and that I’m scoring a little more, I think that really helps.”

Natalie Fischer added 11 points and three steals for the Knights, while Kylie Pelzel had 4 points and three assists and Kiara Murphy and Audra Hoffmann each added 4 points.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Nicollet’s Cheyenne Klockziem takes the ball to the hoop while guarded by Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Audra Hoffmann (34) during the second half of a Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals game Monday at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.

Jazmyn Goettlicher had 15 points for Nicollet, while Cheyenne Klockziem had 9 points. Kamryn Truebenbach, Shelby Beyer and Chloe Kachelmeier each had 6 points, while Megan Soost added 4 points.

After trading a few early buckets, the Knights got their fast-break offense going for a 10-0 run and 18-7 lead. Ibberson started the run with a basket, while Schieffert and Mathiowetz each had two buckets during the run.

A Kachelmeier 3 ended the run and had the Raiders down 18-10, and the Raiders got another 3 moments later, this time by Beyer, to trail 22-15. St. Mary’s put together a 12-0 run after that to lead 34-15, with Schieffert and Fischer each hitting a 3 in the run.

A steal off and inbounds pass by Morgan Mathiowetz led to a quick and-one by her for a 51-25 lead, the largest of the half, but Goettlicher got the and-one back on the other end and the Raiders finished the half on a 9-2 run to trail 55-34 at halftime.

Schieffert said it was a little tougher pulling away from Nicollet in the first half due to their 3-point shooting, but the Knights were able to put it all together in the second half.

“I think they were actually making some 3s that they didn’t the last time we played them,” Schieffert said. “So I think taking away that 3-point shot and just focusing on taking away all aspects of the court and then pushing the ball when they were tired mid-game and just pushing the ball and continued to have success on the offensive [side].”

The second half started with a Schieffert-to-Mathiowetz bucket, before a Fischer free throw and layups from Mathiowetz and Brynne Ibberson had the Knights up 62-34 to force a Nicollet timeout with 15:45 left to play.

Goettlicher stopped the run with a pair of free throws, but back-to-back Mathiowetz layups, a 3 by Fischer and another layup by Mathiowetz completed a 9-0 Knights run for a 71-36 lead.

A Klockziem bucket ended that run, but the Knights got another one after back-to-back Schieffert buckets, a 3 by Mathiowetz and a Pelzel layup for another 9-0 run made it an 80-38 game.

Nicollet got a pair of 3s from Beyer and Truebenbach to cut its deficit to 80-44, but the Knights kept running and got the clock to running time as they continued to increase their lead. A layup by Joslyn Sellner off the bench matched the Knights’ largest lead of the night at 93-51, and a free throw by Nicollet’s Aubrey Hulke off the bench added the game’s final point.

Heading into the section finals, Schieffert said it will be important for the Knights to come ready to play for all 36 minutes.

“I think we kind of struggle sometimes coming ready to play, so I think coming to play right away at that 18-minute mark and just being ready to play the whole entire game [is key],” Schieffert said. “All 18 minutes of the first half and then coming out strong and showing them that we are the better team and we are going to win. And then over halftime just continuing through that second half as well.”