Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Morgan Mathiowetz steps back for a shot during a nonconference girls basketball game against BOLD during the Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s Tip Off Tournament on Saturday at St. Mary’s High School.

SLEEPY EYE — Freshman guard Morgan Mathiowetz scored 30 points, including 21 in the second half, as she led Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s past BOLD 62-46 in a nonconference girls basketball game Saturday.

The game was a part of the second day of the Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s Tip-Off tournament at St. Mary’s High School.

Mathiowetz also had 25 points, eight rebounds and four assists in Friday’s loss to Waterville-Elysian-Morristown, getting a hot start to the season after averaging 17.1 points per game in her eighth-grade season last year.

Mathiowetz added 12 rebounds, three assists and two steals in Saturday’s game, while Natalie Fischer had 15 points, five rebounds and two steals. Brynne Ibberson added 7 points and eight rebounds, while Kylie Pelzel had 5 points and a steal.

St. Mary’s was efficient from the line, making 10 of 12 free throws in the game. BOLD also put up a good effort from the charity stripe, going 6 of 6.

The tournament was the first opportunity for the team to test out the new 35-second shot clock. St. Mary’s head coach Bruce Woitas said the team had a few problems getting a shot off at times, but thought they would adjust quickly to the new pace of the game.

“Between last night and today, I think it probably went off on us three times,” he said. “I think we need to learn to recognize that better, even as coaches we need to be paying more attention. But overall I don’t think it will be that big of a factor, and as we grow in more games, I think the kids will adjust to that a lot better as well.”

St. Mary’s went on a 12-2 run early to go up 15-9, but the Warriors battled back with a 10-0 run of their own to take a 19-15 advantage. St. Marys’ Olivia Schiefert hit a 3-pointer to put an end to the run and pull within 1. The team’s traded points until the half, with BOLD holding onto a 25-23 lead.

St. Mary’s came out in the second half and, though BOLD initially took a 35-30 lead, the Knights tied the game on a Mathiowetz 3-pointer through a foul. From there, St. Mary’s continued to go on a 9-0 run, sparked by transition offense and creating turnovers on defense, to take a 47-37 lead, forcing a BOLD timeout.

“I thought in the second half we really limited their opportunities,” Woitas said. “We rebounded much better, and we showed more patience offensively. Made a few adjustments from what they were doing defensively in the first half, and I thought we just executed things better in the second half and got the transition baskets. That just opened it up a little bit.”

The Knights continued to find success in transition, with Mathiowetz dishing a behind-the-back pass to Pelzel to highlight a game-closing 6-2 run as St. Mary’s went on to win 62-46.

St. Mary’s (1-1) travels to Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop on Thursday.