Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Olivia Schieffert attacks the bucket while guarded by Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop’s Nicole Duehn (40) during a Section 2A girls basketball playoff game on Monday at St. Mary’s High School.

By Jeff Meder

sports@nujournal.com

SLEEPY EYE — No. 1 seed Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s cruised past No. 16 seed Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop 77-22 on Monday in the Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament.

St. Mary’s played a well-rounded game by scoring baskets in bunches, playing good defense and controlling the rebounds both defensively and offensively.

“We really played well defensively and that’s what you want to do at this time of the year,” St. Mary’s head coach Bruce Woitas said. “We got out to a good start offensively, and a lot of kids scored, we had a good balance and good things are going to happen. GFW is really a well-coached team and they worked hard defensively,” he said.

Woitas added that the Knights had the ability to take advantage of the turnovers, and St. Mary’s played a selfless game by playing as a team.

GFW struggled with turnovers, fouls and finding a rhythm offensively in the game.

Morgan Mathiowetz led St. Mary’s and all scorers with 35 points, seven rebounds, seven steals and five assists. Olivia Schieffert added 17 points, five rebounds, eight assists and three steals. Brynne Ibberson had 10 points, three rebounds, one steal and one assist and Natalie Fischer had 6 points and five assists.

Trinity Stearns led GFW with 8 points while Keyden Buboltz added 6 points.

Mathiowetz started the game when she scored 10 of St. Mary’s first 13 points. She had two 3’s and one layup, and Schieffert nailed a 3 and she scored a layup. Fischer had two assists and Mathiowetz added one assist during the opening run.

Stearns canned a 3 at the 14:44 mark to end the Thunderbird’s scoring drought. St. Mary’s continued to pull away from GFW. St. Mary’s led 44-16 at halftime. Mathiowetz had 23 points and Schieffert had 15 at halftime. Stearns led GFW at halftime with 8 points.

Things didn’t improve for GFW in the second half as St. Mary’s outscored the Thunderbirds 33-6.

St. Mary’s (26-2) will now play United South Central, the No. 9 seed, at 6 p.m. on Thursday at St. Peter High School.

GFW finishes the season with a 5-22 overall record.