After defeating Madelia 111-20 in the first round of playoffs Monday, the Knights rolled the Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther Jaguars with a 96-43 quarterfinals win at St. Peter High School.

The top-seeded Knights move to 27-1 on the season and a 6 p.m. semifinals game against Nicollet on Monday at Gustavus Adolphus College.

Ninth-seeded GHEC/T/ML ends its season 14-13.

Morgan Mathiowetz led the charge for the Knights with 39 points, nine assists, five rebounds and four steals, while Olivia Schieffert had 19 points, 10 assists and five steals. Also for the Knights, Kylie Pelzel had 11 points, three rebounds and three steals, while Brynne Ibberson had 8 points, six boards and four steals, Taylor Mathiowetz had 8 points, Natalie Fischer had 5 points and Audra Hoffmann had four rebounds.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Kiara Murphy chases down a loose ball at midcourt during the second half of Thursday’s Section 2A girls basketball quarterfinals game against Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther at St. Peter High School.

The Jaguars were led by Keira Benck’s 14 points, while Londyn Bowers had 7 points and Charlotte Berhow had 6 points.

On paper, the Knights, who have been a ranked Class A team all season with just one loss on their record, are expected to win their first couple of playoff games by a wide margin. But that doesn’t mean they take any opponent for granted.

“It’s playoff time, so you’ve got to respect every opponent you have and prepare that way,” Knights head coach Bruce Woitas said. “We came out with a really strong first half, we ran our sets tonight, did them really well and a lot of different people scored and ended up getting another lopsided game, but playoff time, it’s playoff time, so you’ve just got to go and play. Our girls did a really good job responding to that, we’re playing really good team basketball right now and if we continue that, we’ll b a tough team to contend with.”

The Knights were off to a quick 13-2 lead to force a Jaguars timeout with 15:12 left in the half, with 9 points coming from Morgan Mathiowetz and the other 4 from Schieffert. GHEC/T/ML’s points in that stretch came from Kayla Mattson.

Benck scored inside out of the timeout, but Schieffert answered inside on the other end, kicking off a 15-0 Knights run. Schieffert had 6 points in the paint during the run, while Morgan Mathiowetz had 6 points and Pelzel finished the run with a 3 for a 28-4 lead.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Brynne Ibberson passes the ball during Thursday’s Section 2A girls basketball quarterfinals game against Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther at St. Peter High School.

The Jaguars got their only scoring run in the first half after that after Berhow scored and Benck dropped in a pair of free throws. The Knights finished the half up 59-20.

Benck scored a quick layup to start the second half, but the Knights put together a 16-0 run to lead 75-22, with Morgan Mathiowetz scoring 8 points during the run and Schieffert, Ibberson and Fischer each adding a bucket.

Minutes later, Ibberson stole the ball and found Morgan Mathiowetz for a layup to give the Knights a 60-point lead, 92-32, in running time. Woitas was able to empty his bench in the final 10 minutes, with every player suited up getting in the game. The largest lead of the game came after a bucket by Sidney Tauer to put St. Mary’s up 94-32. Millie Lax had a layup at the buzzer for the Knights for the final score.

The Knights didn’t need the long ball to drop for them to win the game, but they hit on 8 of 18 from the 3-point line. Pelzel, Morgan Mathiowetz and Taylor Mathiowetz each hit a pair of 3s in the win, while Fischer and Schieffert each had one.

“It’s huge because a lot of teams come and think that you’ve gotta stop Morgan or Olivia, but we’ve got others that are capable of doing that,” Woitas said. “Like Kylie and Natalie and Brynne and even Taylor hit a 3 tonight or a couple 3s, we’ve got other players that can do that. … It’s fun to see and we’ve got to have that throughout the playoffs as well.”