Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Morgan Mathiowetz puts up a shot in the paint during a Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament quarterfinals game against United South Central Thursday at St. Peter High School.

By Ari Selvey

aselvey@nujournal.com

ST. PETER — As the weather warms up, so has Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s as the top-seeded team of the Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament defeated No. 8 United South Central 78-45 Friday at St. Peter High School.

The quarterfinals matchup was a game where the Knights were up 47-17 by halftime.

“Obviously we talk about that, we want to have a good start,” St. Mary’s head coach Bruce Woitas said. “At the end of our year, a couple of games, we didn’t start very good. We’ve gone two games in a row against [Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop] and USC. This time of the year, you’ve got to do that, and it starts on the defensive end. Our defense was good, and we had a lot of good ball movement and a lot of people starting early on. When that happens, you’re tough to defend.”

St. Marys’ Morgan Mathiowetz, who scored 28 points in the first half and 40 in the game, also had 10 rebounds, six assists and three steals. She said the team put a focus on coming out strong in this game.

“We had a couple games in the past couple of weeks where we came out really slow,” she said. “We just made it a goal in practice to work really hard in practice so when the game, everything came naturally in the first half. So we got rid of the nerves before the second half. We were able to run the floor and run them out so we would be comfortable coming into the second half every game.”

Also for St. Mary’s, Olivia Schieffert had 13 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and five steals, while Natalie Fischer had 11 points and four assists.

Mathiowetz set the tone with a long 3 to start the game, followed by a layup in transition by Brynne Ibberson. USC tied it back up at 5, but St. Mary’s went on a 25-2 run, led by 14 points from Mathiowetz, to go up 30-7. St. Mary’s continued to extend the lead with 14 more points from Mathiowetz to go up 46-13. USC got some production late in the half from the free-throw line, but the Knights went into halftime with their 47-17 lead.

Mathiowetz continued the scoring in the second half with a mid-range jumper, but with a 35-point lead with under 10 minutes to go, a running clock was implemented. Fischer made a layup in transition before the reserves were put in as the Knights cruised to a 78-45.

Despite the strong playoff win, Mathiowetz believes the team has yet to play its best basketball.

“I still think we haven’t played our best game yet,” she said. “But I definitely think we’re getting there. I think for the most part I feel like our best game is yet to come. Just working every day in practice and getting better every day. I feel like that’s going to be really important for us.”

St. Mary’s (27-2) takes on fourth-seeded Martin County West in the semifinals on Monday. The Knights defeated the Mavericks 61-34 twice during the regular season, with the third matchup being held at 6 p.m. at Gustavus Adolphus College.