Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye’s Kadence Hesse goes up for a layup during the Section 2A girls basketball championship game against BOLD on Friday at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

MANKATO — A great shooting night and good transition offense led BOLD past Sleepy Eye 54-31 Friday night in the Section 2A girls basketball championship game at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Lainey Braulick led the Warriors with 29 points, while Mari Ryberg added 14.

Kadence Hesse led the Indians with a double-double, scoring 10 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Paige Haala added 7 points and three assists, while Brea Mertz had 7 points.

“We didn’t shoot the ball well, and they took Kadence out of the game and we just got flustered with that, didn’t adapt enough,” Sleepy Eye head coach Sarah Hesse said.

BOLD employed a zone defense that was focused on stopping Kadence Hesse.

“Kind of like a triangle and one more than a box and one,” said coach Hesse. “We practiced a box and one at practice this week, but the triangle and one gave them a different look and they weren’t quite sure what to do.”

The first few points of the game were exchanged evenly between the teams with the score tied 5-5 several minutes in. BOLD then went on a 21-4 run to go up 26-9, spanning across two Sleepy Eye timeouts. BOLD hit several 3s and had multiple fast-break scores off of Indians turnovers. Mertz finally broke the run with a long corner 2, but BOLD continued to outscore Sleepy Eye, ending the half up 37-13.

The Indians came out in the second half strong, going on a 10-5 run led by Haala’s 5 points to cut the lead to 42-25, forcing BOLD to take a timeout with 10:04 left in the game. BOLD recovered, going on a 10-2 run of their own to increase their lead to 52-27.

The lead never dipped below 20 and BOLD put in their reserves with two minutes left in the game.

Sleepy Eye finishes the season with a 23-6 overall record.