In what felt like a repeat this season, the No. 1-seeded Knights once again overcame second-seeded BOLD in the final minute of the Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament championship game at the Taylor Center, with Mathiowetz making a pair of free throws to put St. Mary’s up 61-60.

“I think just trusting in myself and knowing I put the work in,” Mathiowetz said. “I want the ball at the end of the game so I can make plays. I know my teammates trust me, and if the defense shows help, I can kick it back out to them. All of us trusting each other and sticking to what we were going to do. We worked hard all week in practice, so we were ready for this moment.”

St. Mary’s needed to hold on for 7.7 more seconds, but Olivia Schieffert deflected a pass to the corner as the ball landed in Brynne Ibberson’s hands.

“I saw her coming up, and I saw the corner was open,” Schieffert said. “I saw her eyes go there, and I knew I had to jump the pass. I think we were all nervous, but we were in the same exact position last year, so we were all confident that we are the better team and we can get this done. Ultimately, we knew we had the better team and the better offense and defense and all around game.”

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Morgan Mathiowetz (facing forward) celebrates with Olivia Schieffert (facing away) after scoring a bucket during the Section 2A Girls Basketball Championship game against BOLD Friday at the Taylor Center.

Ibberson added one final free throw, the second of two, to secure the 62-60 win.

“I was so excited,” Ibberson said. “I didn’t even know what to do. You just have that gush of adrenaline and are like, ‘Oh my gosh, we did it.’ It was the feeling of that.”

Mathiowetz led the Knights, now 29-1, with 34 points, eight rebounds and seven steals, while Schieffert had 18 points, six rebounds and four steals. Ibberson finished with 7 points, five rebounds and five steals.

“Obviously giving BOLD credit, they’re a very solid team,” Mathiowetz said. “We knew at the beginning of the year when we first beat them that wasn’t going to happen at the end of the year … But we pulled it off tonight. We stuck together, and I think that was the biggest thing. We stuck together, we stuck to our plan and we gave it our best.”

Kya Elfering finished with 15 points to lead the Warriors, who end their season 24-6, while Flann scored 14.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Brynne Ibberson looks for a shot during the Section 2A Girls Basketball Championship game against BOLD Friday at the Taylor Center.

St. Mary’s now heads to the Class A State Tournament for the second consecutive season, where it hopes to improve on its fourth-place finish from last year.

“It was one of the goals that we had at the beginning of the year,” St. Mary’s head coach Bruce Woitas said. “We just lost Amelia [Schwartz] last year, the only senior that we had. Everybody else back, plus a few new people that are on the team this year. Just the opportunity to do that against a very good BOLD team.

“The first game we beat them by 36, doesn’t play into this at all. They’ve improved a lot, we’ve improved a lot. And it was a battle back and forth. Both teams maybe didn’t play their best games tonight with some unforced turnovers, but in the end, we came out on top. Just very proud of that group of kids.”

After a close start, St. Mary’s built a 14-9 lead after a 3 from Mathiowetz. Mathiowetz stayed hot as the Knights went on a 15-7 run, with Mathiowetz hitting two more 3s and Schieffert adding 7 points, to go up 29-16. However, the offense cooled off as BOLD battled back, cutting the lead down to 32-30 on a 3 from Kenley Elfering. Schieffert hit a floater, but BOLD’s Kya Elfering added another layup to make the score 34-32 at halftime.

“We always have to dig deep,” Schieffert said. “We knew we had to rebound really well — they are a very good rebounding team — so boxing out and rebounding was really key in our halftime talk. Then also playing the entire game hard, defensively and offensively.”

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Morgan Mathiowetz shoots a jumper during the Section 2A Girls Basketball Championship game against BOLD Friday at the Taylor Center.

BOLD tied it up with a layup from Kenley Elfering after the break, then took the lead on a transition bucket from Lilly Henriksen. St. Mary’s tied it again on a transition layup from Mathiowetz, but a 3 from Henriksen made it a 39-36 BOLD game. The Knights tied it again with a 3 from Natalie Fischer, then took the lead once more as Mathiowetz scored twice in transition and Schieffert added an and-one for a 46-39 advantage.

A putback from Schieffert had the Knights up 52-42, but once again, BOLD refused to go away, going on a 9-0 run to make it a 1-point game. Mathiowetz hit a pair of free throws to increase the lead to 54-51, but BOLD responded with two free throws from Kenley Elfering. Schieffert drew a foul, which sent Kenley Elfering to the bench with five fouls, and split her free throws, but BOLD took the lead with a 3-pointer from Henriksen. Henricksen made it a 58-55 game with a layup in transition, but Mathiowetz followed her own miss for a putback to cut the lead to 58-57.

One defensive stop later, and Mathiowetz hit a runner off glass from the baseline to take a 59-58 lead.

“We had our mentality set since the beginning,” Ibberson said. “We all stuck together, talked each other through it. Either way, we played to the best of our ability. I’m so proud of our team coming together to pull it off.”

BOLD responded with free throws from Flann with 16.8 seconds to go, but Mathiowetz drew another foul and hit both of her free throws. With just 7.7 seconds to play, St. Mary’s held strong, forcing a turnover and coming away with the victory.

“It just takes everybody,” Woitas said. “Even the ones not on the court. All 15 of those kids are so important to the success of this team.”

The state tournament begins next Thursday at Williams Arena.

“[We want to] go to the championship and win it,” Ibberson said. “We’re a small school, but with a lot of possibility and talent. I feel like when we put it all together, we will get really far and win that state championship.”