Seventeen 3-pointers were made by the Knights on their home floor as they used them to take down their crosstown-rival Sleepy Eye Indians 89-53 in a Tomahawk Division boys basketball game.

Adam Steffensmeier led the Knights with 24 points while draining six 3s in the game. He also hade five rebounds and four assists, while Michael Balko had 16 points and 10 rebounds and made three 3s.

Landry Folkens also had a season-high game for the Knights as he had 16 points and three 3-pointers.

“With a team full of shooters, we’re able to trust everybody,” Folkens said. “That one more pass is easier, not like resisting because a guy can’t shoot. We all know everybody can shoot and everybody has the same talent and we all have trust in each other that we can go out there and put numbers on the board.”

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye’s Eric Lozano dribbles the ball to the lane while guarded by Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Tyler Mathiowetz during a Tomahawk Division boys basketball game Friday at St. Mary’s High School.

Brecken Hulke provided the inside part of the game for the Knights as the 6-foot-8 center had 11 points and seven rebounds, while Tyler Mathiowetz had 9 points.

“We think our offense is at our best if the ball gets inside early,” Knights head coach Judd Walter said. “Then let Brecken make a decision if the double comes, let him kick it out. We really like shooting them 3s when the ball comes from the inside-out. It was on the white board. We talked about trying to get the ball inside early, see if there was an advantage and them put some trust in him that he would make the right decision. That was big for him. He picked up a couple offensive fouls, but I liked the aggressiveness, he was going to the hoop hard and then when he kicked it out, we hit some 3s and you have to respect that a little bit.”

Sleepy Eye was led by Brayden Heiderscheidt, who had 18 points. Eric Lozano added 13 points and four assists for the Indians, his final bucket of the night putting him at 1,001 career points.

Lozano started the first half with three 3s, but he struggled to get his long-range shot to drop in the second half. Working the ball inside as the second half went on, Lozano connected on back-to-back jumpers in the paint to pass the 1,000-point milestone with 6:19 left to play.

“When I came down and hit those two [early] 3s, I kind of had that mentality that I had to keep shooting from the outside,” Lozano said. “Then obviously I wasn’t hitting them and was trying to work it inside-out, keep my shot, find it, but it didn’t work. I still got downhill, got to find it a little bit and hit a little middy down low for it. It’s exciting, but obviously not the way we wanted the game to end.”

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Eli Christensen dribbles the ball while guarded by Sleepy Eye’s Riley Voigt during a Tomahawk Division boys basketball game Friday night at St. Mary’s High School.

Braylon Nelson added 12 points for Sleepy Eye.

The game was a back-and-forth affair for the first seven minutes until the Knights got 7 points in a row from Steffensmeier to lead 20-14. Robert Romberg ended the brief run to have the Indians down 20-16, but after a Sleepy Eye timeout, Folkens canned a corner 3 to ignite a 13-0 run by the Knights and force another Sleepy Eye timeout with 4:59 left in the half. Hulke followed Folkens’ 3 with a putback bucket before Folkens had a putback basket of his own and Steffensmeier and Balko each buried 3s to finish the run up 33-16.

Lozano’s third 3 of the half stopped the bleeding temporarily, but Heiderscheidt picked up his third foul shortly after and was forced to sub out. A fast-break layup by Steffensmeier gave the Knights their largest lead of the half, 42-21, but late free throws by Nelson had Sleepy Eye trailing 42-23 at halftime.

The teams traded some 3s minutes into the half, starting with a Cooper Walter 3 for a 48-28 Knights lead. Riley Voigt hit a corner 3 for Sleepy Eye after that, but Folkens answered with a 3 of his own to keep the Knights’ lead at 20. Heiderscheidt ended the 3-point exchange to have the Indians down 51-34.

After Lozano’s consecutive jumpers in the lane pushed him past 1,000 points for his career, Balko buried consecutive 3s for a 74-46 Knights lead. Back-to-back 3s by Steffensmeier and a bucket inside by Balko gave the Knights an 84-51 lead.

An and-one by Folkens and an off-the-glass bucket inside by Hayden Zeig ended the scoring and gave the Knights their largest lead of the night.

“Early in the game we were kind of trading baskets, but we just stuck to our game plan, sit down, play defense and get stops,” coach Walter said. “Once we got some stops, it really carried over. We got a couple transition buckets and we started hitting some 3s, that makes it a little bit easier.”

As the playoffs near, Lozano said the Indians will look to move on quickly and get back to their game.

“You’ve gotta have a short [memory],” he said. “Stay focused on the next game. Next game’s always the biggest game. End of the year, we always want to be our best.”

Folkens, a sophomore on a young team with four senior leaders, said the crosstown rivalry games against Sleepy Eye are fun for him due to trust his senior teammates put in him.

“Our seniors put trust in all of us,” Folkens said. “The crowd is amazing, so it makes it fun to play here. When everybody’s cheering, all that pressure kind of goes away and just goes to having fun.”

The Knights (13-9, 9-6) host Cedar Mountain at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in a Tomahawk Division game, while the Indians (13-10, 7-9) are at Cleveland for a 1 p.m. Tomahawk-Valley Conference crossover game on Saturday.