MINNEAPOLIS — While Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s had a strong first half of shooting against Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, BBE’s consistent, physical play outlasted the Knights in the end.

The second-seeded Jaguars came away with a 70-63 win over the unseeded Knights in the Class A State Boys’ Basketball Quarterfinals on Wednesday at Williams Arena.

St. Mary’s shot 53.8% from the floor in the first half, but a cold spell in the second half saw the Knights shoot 34.5% from the floor and finish the game with a 43.6% shooting percentage. The Knights hit 4 of 11 3-pointers in the first half and finished the game 8 of 17 from beyond the arc, but BBE was relentless in the paint all game and finished with a 60.5% shooting percentage while hitting just 3 of 8 3-pointers.

BBE now moves on to a semifinals game with third-seeded New Life Academy of Woodbury at Williams Arena on Friday. The Knights drop to a consolation bracket game with Sacred Heart at noon on Thursday at Concordia University-Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul.

Kaden Pieper led the Jaguars with 24 points and five rebounds. Ashton Dingmann also had a big game for BBE with 15 points and nine rebounds, while Gavin Kampsen had 12 points and Luke Dingmann added 11 points and six rebounds.

The Knights were led by Trent Steffensmeier’s 19 points, four rebounds and three assists, while Will Walter had 14 points, all coming in the first half. Carson Domeier added 12 points, eight rebounds and three assists for the Knights, while Kaleb Wait had 9 points and five rebounds and Mark Anderson added 5 points.

BBE’s style of play has been described by many as physical heading into the state tournament, and Domeier said that he expected to be challenged in the post on Wednesday.

“I expected it a little bit — the double teams and stuff,” Domeier said of BBE. “But they were pretty physical, so credit to them. They doubled down hard when I got in the post … credit to them, they played good team defense.”

After BBE took the first lead of the game, the Knights got back-to-back buckets by Walter and a 3 by Wait to jump in front 7-2. BBE ended up taking the lead back minutes later, 16-15, after a basket inside by Pieper.

BBE later took a 26-22 lead after a 3 by Ashton Dingmann, but Walter answered with a 3 of his own before Steffensmeier drove inside for a 27-26 Knights lead. The Jaguars took the lead back and stretched it to 35-27 on a 9-0 run before Domeier ended the run with a bucket inside.

A bucket in the paint by Walter with less than 20 seconds to go in the half had the Knights down 37-34 at halftime.

BBE pushed its lead to 46-42 in the second half before the Knights answered. First, Domeier found Anderson on a cut to the basket for an and-one to have the Knights down 46-45. Domeier then got a putback bucket to give the Knights a 47-46 lead, their first lead since leading 27-26 in the first half.

A 3 by Steffensmeier had the Knights up 52-47 with less than 11 minutes to play before the Jaguars changed some matchups around on defense and the Knights got cold.

After Steffensmeier’s 3, the Jaguars went on a 17-2 run to lead 64-54 with 2:02 left to play. Wait hit a corner 3 to have St. Mary’s down 65-59 with 1:09 left, but BBE hit 5 of 6 free throws after that to hang on for the win. Kameron Kosak beat the buzzer on a 3 for the Knights to make the final score.

“I think they [BBE] picked it up defensively,” Knights head coach Judd Walter said. “We made a nice little run before half to get it down to 3, then they actually took a 5-point lead in the second half. They switched to 2-3 [zone] for a little bit. We got a couple good looks out of it, we ran a couple nice sets. Trent got going midway through the second half … sometimes it’s just the ball doesn’t go through the hoop and it did on the other end of the floor and they were able to get a comfortable lead and hold on to it.”

The Knights now look to close out their season with a pair of wins. If the Knights win Thursday, they then play in the fifth-place game Saturday morning.

“We set out at the beginning of the year to win a state championship,” coach Walter said. “Now we kind of know our destiny. Every single game you play, you know what your next one could look like. Coming in here, we kind of knew there’s a couple different scenarios that could play out. Now we know if we want to go out and end on a high note, play together, two last games with this team and this squad for the last time ever, we’re going to have to refocus and come back out and show what we’re about.”