Staff photo by Jeremy Behnke Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s guard Kaleb Wait takes the ball to the basket as Springfield’s James Coffland defends on the play during Tuesday’s game at St. Mary’s.

SLEEPY EYE — The Springfield boys’ basketball team closed the first half of Tuesday’s game against No. 1-ranked Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s with an 8-2 run and it looked like the Tigers were going to make a game of it.

But that run was wiped away right away in the second half as the Knights went on a 7-0 run and ran away with a 72-51 Tomahawk Conference victory at Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s.

The Knights were led by Trent Domeier, who had 20 points, seven rebounds and three steals. Trent Steffensmeier had 14 points and six assists and Kaleb Wait finished with 14 points and six assists. Will Walter scored 8 for the Knights, who improved to 12-1 on the season and 8-0 in the conference. Their only loss of the season was to Mankato Loyola last Thursday.

Springfield was led by Carter Hillesheim, who finished with 16 points. Noah Vogel finished with 9 points and Logan Richert pulled down 10 rebounds.

The Knights grabbed an early 13-4 lead after Steffensmeier scored and Domeier followed with a basket. Caleb Hauger’s basket ended the 11-0 run by the Knights to make it 15-6.

While the Knights held a double-digit lead for most of the half, the Tigers fought back and cut the lead to 19-14 on a basket from Brayden Sturm. But the Knights scored the next 5 points and led 29-17 before the Tigers finished the half strong and trailed 31-25 at the break.

The Knights got off to a fast start in the second half and didn’t look back. Steffensmeier hit a 3-pointer to make it 43-31 and Wait followed with a basket to make it 45-31 before Springfield’s Brendon Buerkle’s three-point play made it 45-34.

The Knights managed to keep the lead in double digits the rest of the way, going up 62-47 on Domeier’s 3. Later, Walter scored to make it 67-47. Trevor Zeig gave the Knights fans one of the highlights when he hit a 3 to make it 72-51.

St. Mary’s hosts Gibbon-Fairfax-Withrop on Friday while Springfield (9-3, 5-3) hosts Sleepy Eye on Thursday.