SLEEPY EYE — The Sleepy Eye St.Mary’s boys’ basketball team downed Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity 88-73 on Saturday in the Section 2A, North Subsection semifinal bracket. The Knights will host Cleveland on Wednesday in the North Subsection championship game.

Carson Domeier led St.Mary’s with 33 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Trent Steffensmeier added 23 points and Kaleb Wait had 14 points and eight rebounds.

Zach Jackson led the Bulldogs with 22 points.

The Bulldogs led for most of the first half, leading by as many as 11 points.

St. Mary’s kept its patience and ran the offense. Late in the first half, the score was 31-20. Domeier scored, was fouled and he made the free throw to start the Knight’s comeback.

Kyle Goblirsch, Wait and Domeier all scored. Steffensmeier tied the contest at 31-31. Wait buried a 3 for the Knight’s first lead of 34-31 with 1:18 remaining.

Domeier hit a 3. On the next play, he took advantage of a Bulldog turnover by launching a long shot that was good at the buzzer. That shot made it 40-31 for St. Mary’s at halftime.

LP/HT’s Jackson and Tanner Scheevel each hit back-to-back 3s to open the second half to cut the deficit to 40-37.

The Bulldogs tried a zone defense. St. Mary’s passed the ball around the perimeter pull LP/HT out. Steffensmeier was able to slip behind the Bulldog defense and scored.

Scheevel and Jackson connected on two consecutive 3s to bring the Bulldogs within 3 points at 53-50.

After that, the Knights were able to fend off any major comeback attempt by the Bulldogs, scoring at strategic times, playing good defense and rebounding well.

Wait went coast-to-coast on a fast-break lay-up for the “icing on the cake” for the Knights.