Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye’s Kadence Hesse pulls up for a midrange shot over Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Morgan Mathiowetz (3) during a Tomahawk Conference girls basketball game at Sleepy Eye High School.

SLEEPY EYE — Exactly one year ago, Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s went up late in a girls basketball game against Sleepy Eye on Jan. 26, 2023, holding on for a 54-51 win.

This year, however, Sleepy Eye overcame a late push by the Knights, winning 70-61 in a Tomahawk Conference girls basketball game Friday at Sleepy Eye High School.

After St. Mary’s overcame a 6-point halftime deficit to take a 56-54 lead, Sleepy Eye’s Sam Price hit a 3 from the top of the arc to give the Indians the lead back. Sleepy Eye never relinquished that lead, pulling away for the 9-point win.

Kadence Hesse led the Indians with 23 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, while Paige Haala had 15 points. Cadence Okerman added 14 points and six rebounds and six assists for Sleepy Eye, while Brea Mertz had 7 points and 18 rebounds.

Morgan Mathiowetz led St. Mary’s with 27 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and two steals, while Kylie Pelzel, Brynne Ibberson and Natalie Fischer all had 10 points.

Sleepy Eye head coach Sarah Hesse said that Kadence Hesse’s presence helped calm the team when St. Mary’s was making their push.

“Kadence settles our ship,” coach Hesse said. “She is kind of like the rock. She kind of brings me back sometimes. You never know what you’re going to get when you play St. Mary’s, because one team can be way better and one team can be way worse, but when you actually play because it’s the cross-town rival, you never know what you’re going to get except a good game. One of those things that you know what’s going to come out is a good game.”

Sleepy Eye improves to 15-2 overall and 9-1 in the conference, solidifying their lead over St. Mary’s (13-5, 9-3) in the season standings.

“It was a good game for us,” coach Hesse said. “We needed a game like this. We’ve had a lot of blowouts, so we need some games where we have to struggle a little bit. Find what we need to do and where we need to work. These are good games for us to get better.”

Sleepy Eye started the game off with an aggressive approach on defense, getting a lot of tips and forcing a lot of turnovers, which were a problem all game for the Knights.

“Obviously we have to [limit our turnovers],” St. Mary’s head coach Bruce Woitas said. “We’re a very young team yet, but we’re almost through this year, so we can’t use that as an excuse. But some of that showed again early on. We were down [21-4] at one point, but we battled hard to get ourselves back in it.”

Price said that the defensive effort of the team started in practice.

“Offense is a big part of the game, but we knew we had to get back on defense and really lock in,” Price said. “Defense is a big part of our game. We worked a lot on defense during practice.”

Sleepy Eye got to that 21-4 lead with balanced scoring, with all five of their starters — Haala, Kadence Hesse, Mertz, Okerman, and Brissa Hernandez — getting a bucket. St. Mary’s found its rhythm, however, working their way back to within 10 on a pull-up mid-range shot by Pelzel. St. Mary’s cut the lead to 39-34 by halftime, with a deep 3-pointer by Mathiowetz just missing at the buzzer.

“I think when we had that, we had more flow to our offense.” Woitas said. “We were actually getting it to the inside-, outside-type looks, where initially we started, we weren’t doing well with that. Then later we did a good job with that. When we have our ball movement, it just opens so much up for everybody and it’s a lot easier offensively.”

The second half started out similarly to the first half, with Sleepy Eye rebuilding to a 51-38 lead. St. Mary’s once again fought back into the game, going on a 18-3 run. Mathiowetz began to take over during the run, scoring the final 8 points of the run. After scoring on a Eurostep and a transition layup, Mathiowetz got a steal after a Sleepy Eye defensive rebound and scored to tie the game at 54. Mathiowetz finished out the run with a baseline layup off glass to take the first lead of the game for the Knights.

However, Price soon took that lead away with her 3-pointer. The teams traded points for a few possessions before the Indians went on a 11-0 run, capped of by converted and-one by Price.

Mathiowetz hit a shot from 25 feet from the basket to cut the lead to 70-61, but with 40 seconds remaining and no fouls to give, St. Mary’s couldn’t make a comeback as Sleepy Eye came away with the win.

Sleepy Eye hosts Wabasso on Tuesday. St. Mary’s will host Cedar Mountain on Tuesday.