With a concerted effort to get the ball inside more in the second half, however, everything fell in to place for the Knights as they went on to down the fourth-seeded Martin County West Mavericks 64-33 in the Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals Monday night at Gustavus Adolphus College.

The win moves the Knights on to Friday’s 6 p.m. section finals game against second-seeded BOLD, which beat Sleepy Eye Monday night 60-41. The championship game will take place at Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Bresnan Arena.

Morgan Mathiowetz finished with 29 points, seven rebounds, five assists and seven steals to lead the Knights, now 28-2. Olivia Schieffert picked things up for the Knights in the second half with 8 points and finished the game with 13 points total and 11 assists. Brynne Ibberson added 13 points and six rebounds, while Natalie Fischer had 5 points and three assists.

Emily Anderson finished with 17 points to lead the Mavs as they finished their season 23-7 overall. Maddie Carlson added 4 points.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Olivia Schieffert goes up for a shot in the paint during the Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals Monday night at Gustavus Adolphus College.

While the Knights struggled to get their 3s to drop in the game and finished with five made, they didn’t need them with how they were utilizing backdoor screens and cuts to the hoop, especially in the second half.

“I feel like they knew us, so they knew that Morgan is a really great 3-point shooter and we also have some other good 3-point shooters,” Schieffert said. “So just knowing that they’re going to overplay and then being able to do a shot fake or take it to the rim.”

Both teams did in fact know each other well as they played Feb. 13 and Feb. 20 at St. Mary’s High School, both ending with the same 61-34 score. The second game was for the Tomahawk-Valley Conference title.

Schieffert said even though the Knights had a pair of wins over the Mavs this season, taking it easy in the playoffs wasn’t going to be on the menu.

“Even when we beat them two times, we still push each other,” Schieffert said. “We still have to come out and play even if we’re winning and we have to play really good defense.”

The Mavericks committed 27 turnovers to the Knights’ nine in the game, but 16 of those MCW turnovers came in the first half. Despite the Mavericks getting their turnover number down after halftime, their shooting went cold and the Knights pounced as they outscored the Mavs 33-13 in the second half.

“It just comes down to the defense, because if we play good defense our offense will flow,” Ibberson said.

Leading 31-20 at halftime, the Knights upped their lead to 35-20 early in the second half after a bucket inside by Ibberson and a steal that led to a layup by Schieffert. Emily Anderson hit a 3 to stop the brief 5-0 run by the Knights, but Ibberson answered with back with a 3 of her own before Mathiowetz converted an and-one for a 41-23 lead to force an MCW timeout with 12:40 left to play. Emily Anderson scored out of the timeout in the paint, but a Fischer 3 kicked off a 15-0 run that put the Knights up 56-25.

After a layup by Schieffert had the Knights up 62-27, a timeout was taken with 4:28 left. The Mavs got their only back-to-back buckets in the half out of the timeout when Courtney Anderson and Carlson scored inside to trail 62-31.

Schieffert got a basket back for the Knights before Abby Wohlhuter scored the final bucket of the game for the Mavs for the final score.

Ibberson had a bucket and a pair of free throws in the first half, but she got more involved in the second half offensively, something she attributes to just being more confident.

“It comes down to confidence in yourself, too,” Ibberson said. “You have to have confidence in yourself to do other things and put yourself more in the play.”

The Knights opened the game with a 9-0 run, with the Mavericks committing four consecutive turnovers during that stretch. A Mathiowetz steal for a layup completed the run as Emily Schettler scored in the paint to put the Mavs on the board.

After Mathiowetz banked in a mid-range jumper to complete an 8-0 Knights run, Emily Anderson hit a 3 to make it a 17-7 game. Mathiowetz hit her second and final 3 of the night to answer and put the Knights up 20-7.

Bailey Larson hit a mid-range jumper minutes later to have the Mavs back within single digits, 27-18, but the Knights took a double-digit lead back at the half after a long 3-point shot from Emily Anderson to beat the halftime buzzer hit off the front of the rim.

Pre-sale tickets to Friday’s championship game are available at the St. Mary’s High School office through 3:30 p.m. Friday.