Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Springfield’s Sydney Hauger throws up a shot after getting past a Waterville-Elysian-Morristown defender during the first half Monday in St. Peter.

ST. PETER — Despite having to fight back from an early deficit on Monday night, the Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s girls’ basketball team looked every bit the part of a No. 1 seed.

St. Mary’s (25-2) fell behind 5-0 against the No. 3 seed Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart, but the Knights made some adjustments and got things going. They defeated the Mustangs 72-54 at Gustavus Adolphus College and will now play Waterville-Elysian-Morristown at 6 p.m. on Friday at Minnesota State University, Mankato for Section 2A championship. The winner of that game goes to the state tournament beginning next Thursday.

Sydney Windschitl led the Knights with 25 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals. Teammate Madison Mathiowetz finished with 22 points, nine rebounds, five assists and three steals. The two were a big part of the Knights’ ability to move the ball around and create space all over the floor.

It was also a bit of redemption for the Knights, who lost to BOLD in the North Subsection title game a year ago.

“We’ve been here before so obviously we knew what it felt like and we knew what to expect a little bit more from last year,” Mathiowetz said. “So I’d like to say we were ready for it more and we just came in, we knew we had a good shot at it and we came out and we played like we needed to today.”

The Mustangs raced out to a 5-0 lead thanks to a 3-pointer from Rachel Kottke and a basket from Allison Milbrandt. They later went up 10-5 on a 3 from Rachel Kottke, but the Knights went on a 10-0 run of their own, taking a 15-10 lead on a basket from Windschitl.

“We definitely had great ball movement, we came out and we just knew that we wanted it more,” Mathiowetz said. “We needed to want it more if we wanted to win tonight.”

The Mustangs hung close for a few more minutes until Mathiowetz and Windschitl took over midway through the first half. A Windschitl basket made it 19-15 for the Knights and back-to-back baskets from Mathiowetz saw the Knights take a 25-17 lead.

St. Mary’s kept its foot on the gas, going up 34-21 on a basket from Windschitl with 3:36 left in the half and Windschitl hit a late basket to put the Knights up 40-24. They led 40-26 at the break.

The Mustangs went on a 7-2 run early in the second half to cut St. Mary’s lead to 42-33. But once again, the Knights had too many weapons, eventually stretching the lead to 50-33 on a basket from Liz Schwint. Later on, Windschitl went on a run of her own to put the Knights up 66-47 and the St. Mary’s held on the rest of the way.

It’s been a fun year for Mathiowetz, who has rewritten the scoring book at St. Mary’s this year, passing her aunt Molly and her uncle Sean on the career scoring list at the school. Her aunt Ashley Schieffert and her grandpa Glen Mathiowetz are also assistant coaches on the team, making it even more special.

“It’s awesome, it’s everything you could ever ask for,” Madison Mathiowetz said. “All season long, this is what you’re working for, you’re working towards the end of the season and getting better, so by the end of the year we’re playing our best ball.

“Coming from my family, they’ve helped me so much to get here, they’ve helped the team…my aunt coaches, she’s an assistant, my grandpa is our assistant,” Madison Mathiowetz said. “It’s just incredible, coach [Bruce] Woitas does an amazing job, there’s just so many people to thank, but they have given us so much to look forward to.”