Sleepy Eye initially did well against St. Mary’s initially, holding a 12-11 lead early.

“Early on we knew we had to attack them,” Sleepy Eye head coach Grant Romberg said. “We had to attack the paint, drive had to the rim and make them commit fouls and try to get them in foul trouble, which we did. And then we kind of had that let down where they decided, I don’t know if the girls got comfortable or what, but we had a little letdown there where we quit doing it, and then St. Mary’s got back in it.

“You’ve got to keep the hammer down against a really good team like St. Mary’s, and you can’t let [Morgan] Mathiowetz get going, which she did.”

St. Mary’s regrouped and took control of the game with a flurry of defensive turnovers and transition scoring.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye’s Jaelynn Schauman (21) takes a shot after getting past St. Marys’ Kiara Murphy (20) during a Tomahawk Division girls basketball game against Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s Tuesday at Sleepy Eye High School.

“Obviously it didn’t start how we wanted it to,” St. Mary’s head coach Bruce Woitas said. “We only had a couple of practices since Thanksgiving break, so a little bit sluggish with that. We didn’t come out and establish themselves.

“But give our kids credit, they regrouped, they came back and we were able to get a lot of transition buckets in that stretch as well. Just settled down a little bit and ran the offense a little more effectively, and then it kind of opened up the game more.”

Morgan Mathiowetz led the Knights with 30 points, 10 steals, eight points and eight assists, while Olivia Schieffert had 15 points, four rebounds, three steals and two assists. Taylor Mathiowetz added 10 points and an assist for St. Mary’s. Sidney Tauer chipped in 4 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Jaelynn Schauman led Sleepy Eye with 13 points and four rebounds, while Taylor Berkner had 6 points, five assists and four rebounds. Lexi Hoffman added 5 points and three rebounds.

Hoffman started the game off with a layup for Sleepy Eye, then a mid-range jumper from Berkner made it a 4-0 game. Morgan Mathiowetz tied the game with a putback and a transition layup, but Jace Schauman made a layup to give the Indians the lead once more. Sleepy Eye stayed ahead with an and-one from Jace Schauman and a layup from Destiney Dittbenner, but an and-one from Mathiowetz tied the game at 11. Sleepy Eye took its final lead of the game with a free throw from Jaelynn Schauman, but Schieffert responded with a layup to put the Knights up 13-12 as Sleepy Eye called a timeout.

“We realized after the first eight minutes of that half, we weren’t playing to our best ability,” Taylor Mathiowetz said. “Morgan really hyped up the team and she really pushed us to our full potential, and I think that’s what woke us up and we played to our full potential tonight. I think there’s a lot to come out of that.”

St. Mary’s came out of the timeout with a transition layup from Taylor Mathiowetz that sparked a 10-2 run, finished off by another transition layup from Morgan Mathiowetz. Taylor Berkner scored a layup to make it a 23-16 game, but St. Marys’ defense took over as the Knights shut out the Indians for the rest of the half.

“It took a while, because we weren’t playing very aggressively defensively and we weren’t positioning ourselves very well,” Woitas said. “But once we corrected that, it made it a little tougher on [Sleepy Eye] Public as well. We have high expectations, so we can’t come out and start the game that way. We have to come out ready to go.”

Morgan Mathiowetz and Taylor Mathiowetz were particularly effective in transition during the run, with Morgan Mathiowetz scoring 9 and Taylor Mathiowetz scoring 8, including 6 on assists from Morgan Mathiowetz.

“I think that Morgan just looks up the court and she sees the open players,” Taylor Mathiowetz said. “Just hustling down the court helps us a lot during the game.”

St. Mary’s finished out the first half with a 46-16 lead as Morgan Mathiowetz hit a 3-pointer to end the run.

Sleepy Eye got back on the board to start the second half as Jaelynn Schauman scored on a layup, and Morgan Mathiowetz responded with a 3 to make it 49-18. Jace Schauman scored off of a cut, ans St. Mary’s went on an 11-2 run, with Schieffert scoring all 11 for the Knights, to make it a 60-23 game.

St. Mary’s continued to control the game, and reserves entered the game with four minutes to play with the score at 74-35. St. Marys’ Grace Hoffmann scored 4 points to help push the score out to the 80-37 final.

St. Mary’s (4-0, 1-0) hosts Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop on Thursday, while Sleepy Eye (2-2, 0-1) plays at New Ulm Cathedral on Tuesday.