St. Mary’s scored the fist 16 points of the game and never looked back, charging to a 52-point win.

“In the first half, we were a little too aggressive,” St. Mary’s head coach Bruce Woitas said. “We had too many fouls and we had to switch to a zone. But I thought we got some transition out of our zone defense as well. Offensively at times we were a little bit sloppy at times as well, but we still came out with a nice win. A lot of good things tonight as well, but still a lot of things to work on.”

The Knights now improve to 13-0 overall and 9-0 in conference play as the second-ranked team in Class A.

“We had high expectations this year, and we feel we have more depth than we’ve had in the previous couple of years,” Woitas said. “It’s nice to have that, you don’t feel like you lose a lot when you make those rotations. We like where we’re at, and we have a couple games coming up on our schedule that we need to get ready for.”

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Olivia Schieffert (20) goes up for a layup against Sleepy Eye’s Destiny Dittbenner (left) during a Tomahawk Division girls basketball game at St. Mary’s High School.

The Knights will host New Ulm Cathedral on Thursday. Sleepy Eye (9-7, 5-4) host Cathedral on Friday.

Morgan Mathiowetz led the Knights with 37 points, three rebounds, seven assists and nine steals, while Olivia Schieffert had 19 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals. Taylor Mathiowetz added 10 points for St. Mary’s

Destiny Dittbenner had 9 points, three rebounds and three steals for the Indians, while Jaelynn Schauman had 8 points and two rebounds. Jace Schauman and Taylor Berkner each had 5 points for Sleepy Eye.

St. Marys’ 16-0 lead was powered by Morgan Mathiowetz’s 7 points, with Natalie Fischer also hitting a 3 during the stretch. Jaelynn Schauman put Sleepy Eye on the board with a layup, but St. Mary’s scored another 6 points uninterrupted, with Morgan Mathiowetz hitting another 3 for a 22-2 lead. Cam Maher made another layup for Sleepy Eye, and through St. Mary’s pushed the lead out to 31-4, Sleepy Eye went on a scoring run of its own, with Maher making a pair of free throws, Berkner making a 3-pointer and Jace Schauman hitting a layup before Dittbenner converted an and-one to cut the lead down to 33-16.

St. Mary’s got the ball rolling again with a layup and a 3 from Schieffert, and St. Mary’s went on a 14-0 run that put them up 47-16, closed out with a layup in transition from Morgan Mathiowetz. Sleepy Eye got a 3 to fall from Alexis Hoffmann before halftime, with the Knights holding onto a 50-24 lead.

St. Mary’s opened the second half with a 17-2 run, with Morgan Mathiowetz, Brynne Ibberson, Schieffert and Taylor Mathiowetz all scoring during the run. Sleepy Eye called a timeout and got a pair of free throws from Jace Schauman, but Schieffert came back with a 3-pointer. St. Mary’s held an 81-30 lead with 6:40 to play after a mid-range shot from Grace Hoffmann, and reserves entered the game with 3:30 left to play in running time.