Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye St. Marys' Morgan Mathiowetz (3) celebrates with teammate Natalie Fischer (23) after hitting a game-clinching 3-pointer during the Class A State Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals against Central Minnesota Christian Friday at Williams Arena.

MINNEAPOLIS — With under a minute to play in the Class A State Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals, second-seeded Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Morgan Mathiowetz pulled up from the right wing and drained a 3-pointer.

That shot put the Knights up 53-47 over sixth-seeded Central Minnesota Christian, which was also the final score as St. Mary’s advanced to its first-ever state title game.

“Just knowing that we had to get a score to pull away with the lead for us,” Mathiowetz said. “Knowing that my team trusted me taking that shot and being confident and knowing that I’ve taken that shot a million times in the gym, probably more than that. And knowing it’s either a make and we stretch the lead or a miss and we need to get back on defense. Having that confidence and knowing my teammates have confidence in me too.”

Mathiowetz finished with a game-high 32 points, along with six rebounds, three assists and four steals. Olivia Schieffert had 10 points and seven rebounds, while Natalie Fischer had 6 points. Audra Hoffmann added 5 points and 12 rebounds.

Sienna Duinick, Emmi Braem and Addie Taatjes each had 12 points for CMC.

St. Mary’s will face off against top-seeded Mountain Iron-Buhl at 12 p.m. on Saturday at Williams Arena.

“It’s super special,” Fischer said. “Not everybody gets to be in my shoes and gets to have their senior year with a state championship game. I’m extremely grateful and it’s not something you see very often. Very grateful to get to do it with the rest of the people on my team. They’re able to make it so special and so fun. It’s really exciting.”

Last year, St. Mary’s fell in the semifinals round to Sacred Heart. Fischer said that extra year of experience helped the team come together to get one step closer to a state championship.

“I think really just trusting each other,” she said. “We’re the same team we were last year besides one, so we knew we could do it. It came down to the wire last year too, and we said right before that we need to have so much confidence going into this game and trust each other. So we did, lean on each other and trusting they could do it and we could make our shots and play good D to help us win. And we did. Leaning on each other was the goal, and we did that.”

The game was a rematch of St. Marys’ lone loss of the season, where the Bluejays came away with a 4-point win. The Knights were able to reverse that result when it mattered most.

“We knew that they were going to be a good team in their section and probably the favorites, so we were possibly going to see them back here,” Mathiowetz said. “Yesterday [Thursday] when we found out, we just knew — the last time we played them in January, we knew we didn’t play our best basketball. We knew we had that in our tank still, so we came out and stuck to our gameplan and everything. It feels pretty good to get our revenge here, and now that we’re going to the championship, it’s a lot bigger deal than maybe what it was in January. Obviously we learned a lot from that game, and we stuck together and we got done.”

Mathiowetz started the game with a pair of 3s and a 6-0 lead for St. Mary’s, but CMC fought back to take a 7-6 lead on a putback from Duininck. A layup from Schieffert and another 3 from Mathiowetz had the Knights up 11-7, but the Bluejays responded and seized the lead once more on a Duinick 3 to go up 16-14. A shot through a foul by Schieffert tied the game, and the teams traded the lead for several possessions. A mid-range shot by Shieffert had the knights up 28-27, and Mathiowetz added to that lead with a mid-range shot of her own in transition, but the Bluejays closed out the half with a pair of baskets by Duinick and Carrie Mulder. Mathiowetz missed her end-of-half heave as CMC took a 31-30 lead into halftime.

CMC added to that lead with a 6-0 run out of the half, forcing a St. Mary’s timeout. The Knights cut the lead back down to 1 after layups from Mathiowetz, Schieffert and Hoffmann, but the Bluejays maintained the lead with buckets from Peighton Mulder and Taatjes for a 41-36 advantage. Mathiowetz hit a long runner to trim the lead to 3, but Taatjes responded with another layup for a 43-39 lead.

But St. Mary’s wasn’t ready to be sent home in the semis for the second consecutive year.

“I think just knowing that we put in the work outside of this game,” Mathiowetz said. “Knowing that all season we’ve been working in the offseason and in the gym. These shots that we’re taking in practice and on our own and now in the game, it’s just second nature, being really comfortable and having the confidence in taking that shot.

“We were really hungry to get back to this game. This was the game we lost in last year, so playing with a chip on our shoulder and getting after it and leaving everything out on the court.”

Mathiowetz kept scoring with a mid-range shot in transition, and her 3 tied the game at 43. St. Mary’s took its first lead of the second half on a Fischer free throw, and the Knights went up 3 on a long 2 from Schieffert. Hoffmann added a layup on a Mathiowetz assist for a 50-45 lead, but Duinck hit a layup through a foul to make it a 53-47 game as St. Mary’s called a timeout with 1:42 to go. With time winding down, Mathiowetz got to her spot and knocked down her game-sealing shot, with CMC unable to get another shot to go to send St. Mary’s to the championship.

“We stuck together and we battled through some things,” St. Mary’s head coach Bruce Woitas said. “We made some big shots down the stretch to get ourselves back on top, and we forced them to take some things that they maybe didn’t want to take at the end. It worked out for us. We’re excited for our opportunities.”

St. Mary’s just has one more team in its way in Mountain Iron-Buhl, who holds a 30-1 record going into the championship game.

“We’re going to have our hands full,” Woitas said. “They’re a very tough team. They really like to get out and go hard and push it, and we have to be ready for that … We’re going to have to rely on what we do and not so much worry about them.

“We played them a few times in some summer stuff and a few years ago we played them in a breakdown, but they’re a very solid team. They spend a lot of time in the game of basketball as well, they do travel stuff in the summer. It can be a tough matchup for us, but I think these guys are ready for the challenge ahead of them. We’re going to show up.”