File photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Katelyn Rutscher looks for an open teammate during a home game at St. Mary’s High School earlier this season.

SLEEPY EYE — Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s crushed Wabasso 63-27 on Monday in Tomahawk Conference girls’ basketball action.

The Knights dispelled any notion of the Rabbits pulling an upset in several ways. First, they jumped out to an early lead. Second, Wabasso only scored 13 points in the first half and 14 points in the second half.

Third, Madison Mathiowetz scored 27 points — which was the same number as the total number of points scored by the Rabbits. She also had 21 rebounds, five assists and three steals.

St. Mary’s (15-1, 10-0) will travel to Minnesota Valley Lutheran (13-3, 9-0) on Tuesday. MVL is perfect both in conference play and on its home court. The Tomahawk Conference title potentially hangs in the balance for the winner.

Mathiowetz scored St. Mary’s first 5 points. She also had a rebound and an assist on Allie Labat’s basket. Sophia Hanna’s basket was Wabasso’s first points of the game. Mathiowetz and Labat answered with baskets of their own on back-to-back plays. St. Mary’s led 33-13 at halftime.

On the second play of the second half, Mathiowetz passed the ball to Reagan Severson who scored. Mathiowetz got a steal and a layup, increasing the Knights’ advantage to 37-15.

St. Mary’s Liz Schwint earned an assist when she threw the ball to Mathiowetz, who scored, was fouled and dropped in the free throw.

On the next play, Schwint got a rebound and passed to Katelyn Rutscher who passed to Mathiowetz for a basket. Natalie Fischer scored on an underhanded layup on the next possession for St. Mary’s.

Schwint added 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and one steal. Labat scored 9 points and she had four rebounds and two steals. Severson had 9 points, three assists and four steals.

Avery Carlson led Wabasso with 10 points, while Bella Brand added 7 points and eight rebounds. Kelsey Frank scored 4 points and she had three assists. Hanna had 5 points and three assists.

Wabasso (6-12, 3-7) will play at New Ulm Cathedral (2-12, 0-11) at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.