SLEEPY EYE — Sleepy Eye proved to be too tough to stop as it defeated Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s 85-78 in a Tomahawk Conference boys’ basketball game Monday night.

The Indians (5-6) created turnovers in the first half to gain the early lead in the crosstown rivalry game.

The Knights (0-10) closed the deficit in the early minutes of the first half and trailed 15-12 with 12 minutes left to play in the first half.

“In the first half we played hard, but the turnovers really hurt us that they converted into easy points,” Knights coach Tim Milliard said.

Sleepy Eye created a turnover just inside the half-court line and Zach Haala finished with a dunk which helped the Indians pull away.

“It’s a game we always want to win, there is always a good atmosphere against this team and fun to compete [against the Knights],” Haala said.

The Indians opened a 26-15 lead before Nathan Walter tallied a steal and hit Haala with the pass and the layup. The Indians forced another turnover and Haala hit a 3-pointer and the 31-15 lead.

“We moved the ball really well, in the first half, a lot of guys getting looks with some guys in double figures in the first half already,” Haala said.

Sleepy Eye’s Avery Stevens scored from down low and Haala’s outside shooting gave the Indians the 47-30 lead at halftime.

“It was a big lead going into the second half and we knew we wanted to maintain that, unfortunately we gave up some key points to let them back in the game, but we pulled it out in the end,” Haala said.

The Indians put up an 8-0 scoring run opening the second half by Jon Mickelson putting up 6 points and Stevens adding 2 points in the run.

A pass from the middle of the court hit Mickelson as he scored his first two points. Mickelson then grabbed his own rebound to go up and get his second field goal of the half. Haala then fed Mickelson underneath the rim for another Sleepy Eye basket.

“We went into half time and we could see some things that could get [Mickelson] some looks, and the guys found him, when your big guy can score it opens up everything else,” Indians’ coach Shane Heiderscheidt said.

With 5:11 to play in the game the Indians held a 73-51 lead before the Knights closed the gap. The Knights’ scoring was fueled by Labat and some 3-pointers courtesy of Dalton Meyer.

“For us it wasn’t really complicated, we hit some shots and stopped turning it over taking better care of the basket ball and ate into the lead,” Milliard said.

Meyer had 9 points in the second half all coming from 3s later in the half to help the Knights bring the game back within reach. Labat put up 9 points in the final five minutes left to play in the game.

St. Marys’ Carter Currans dropped a 3-pointer from way beyond the arc to bring the Knights deficit to seven points as the Indians led 77-70 with under 2 and a half minutes to play.

Labat led the Knights with 27 points and 10 rebounds, Currans ended with 15 points and Brandon Wait tallied 5 points with nine rebounds.

Haala led the Indians with 26 points, Stevens had 17 points and Carter Brinkman put up 15 points for the Indians.

St. Mary’s will host Minnesota Valley Lutheran at 7:30 on Friday for a Tomahawk Conference game.

The Indians will be at home at 7:30 on Friday against Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop for aconference matchup.