“It feels great,” St. Mary’s senior Natalie Fischer said. “We set our expectations super high at the start of the season, and it’s great to feel all the work that we’ve been putting in be accomplished now.”

St. Mary’s went on an early 17-2 run to go up 30-16, never letting the lead dip down below 11 from that point on.

“We started out really slow, and we said at halftime we can’t keep coming out slow, especially going into playoffs,” Fischer said. “We have to start strong right away. It was good that we came out and we had a lot of forced turnovers that turned into easy fast-break layups for us, and that was good for us. It kept us rolling through the whole second half.”

Morgan Mathiowetz led the Knights with 33 points, six rebounds, five assists and 13 steals, while Olivia Schieffert had 24 points, three rebounds, four assists and five steals. Kylie Pelzel added 8 points and three steals.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Natalie Fischer looks for a pass during the Tomahawk-Valley Conference Girls Basketball Championship against Nicollet Thursday at Nicollet High School.

Cheyenne Klockziem led the Raiders with 13 points and seven rebounds, while Jazmyn Goettlicher had 9 points and Zoie Rengstorf had 8 points.

Rengstorf drew first blood with a quick layup off of the tipoff for a 2-0 Nicollet lead. Morgan Mathiowetz was fouled on a 3-pointer and made all three free throws, but Megan Soost scored a putback to keep Nicollet in the lead. A 3-pointer from Rengstorf and an and-one from Goettlicher had the Raiders up 10-5, but Schieffert hit a 3 to cut the lead to 10-8. St. Mary’s took a 13-12 lead on a transition layup from Fischer, and Klockziem made a layup to retake the lead. However, that was the last time the Raiders led in the game, as a 3 from Morgan Mathiowetz started St. Marys’ 17-2 run, which ended on a transition layup from Taylor Mathiowetz and a timeout from Nicollet with 8:18 to play in the first half. Rengstorf stopped the run with an and-one of her own to cut the lead to 30-19, but St. Mary’s went on another 12-0 run, with Brynne Ibberson and Schieffert each scoring 4, to go up 42-19. A layup by Klockziem set the score at 46-23 going into the break.

The Knights didn’t slow down in the second half, starting with a 6-0 run and going up 71-29 on a layup from Schieffert as Nicollet called a timeout with 6:34 to play. Reserves entered the game with two minutes to play as St. Mary’s celebrated the victory.

St. Mary’s (24-1) has one regular season game left as they travel to fourth-ranked New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva on Thursday.

“It’s going to take everything and it’s going to take super intense defense,” Fischer said. “We have to come out right away. New Richland is going to be a huge test for us, and if we come out of the game right away and push the ball and really work hard on our offense, we should be just fine.”

Nicollet’s Zoie Rengstorf drives from the 3-point line during the Tomahawk-Valley Conference Girls Basketball Championship against Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s Thursday at Nicollet High School.

Nicollet (19-7) awaits section playoff seeding for its next game.