Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye’s Jace Schauman passes the ball out of traffic while guarded by Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart’s Jamie Novotny (24) and Lily Hubin (5) during a Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament quarterfinal game at Sibley East High School in Arlington on Thursday night.

By Travis Rosenau

trosenau@nujournal.com

ARLINGTON — Sleepy Eye survived the hot hand of Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart’s Lily Hubin and built a double-digit lead late in the second half to earn a 61-47 win in the Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament quarterfinals Thursday night at Sibley East High School.

The win moves third-seeded Sleepy Eye (21-7) on to a semifinals game with second-seeded BOLD at 7:45 p.m. Monday at Gustavus Adolphus College. The sixth-seeded Mustangs end their season with a 15-11 record.

Thursday’s win was also Sleepy Eye’s 12th win a row this season.

Hubin finished with a Mustangs-high 21 points, which 15 of those points came in the first half on five 3-pointers. Getting Hubin out of rhthym in the second half was big for Sleepy Eye in securing the win.

“When the ball got out of [Hubin’s] hand, we face-guarded her a little bit more,” Sleepy Eye head coach Grant Romberg said. “Obviously fatigue played into that probably a little bit, too. Our bench is a little bit deeper, we go a little bit deeper rotation than they can, so I’m sure that was the other part of it. Between that and when the ball got out of her hand, trying to make sure she didn’t get it and we tried to make her put it on the floor instead of just being able to shoot.”

Paige Haala led the Indians with a game-high 23 points to go with five rebounds and two steals, while Taylor Berkner had 12 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Cadence Okerman had 10 points, five assists, four rebounds and five steals. Jaelynn Schauman added 7 points and four steals also.

Jozlyn Kramer added 9 points for BLHS.

Hubin’s third 3 of the first half put her team up 10-4 early in the game. That ended up being BLHS’s biggest lead of the night.

After Haala answered with a jumper, Chloe Schultz scored inside on the other end to put BLHS back up by 6. Moments later, a corner 3 by Kayla Hecht had Sleepy Eye down 16-15 before a block by Jaelynn Schauman led to a mid-range jumper by Haala on the fast break to give Sleepy Eye a 17-16 lead and force a BLHS timeout with 8:21 left in the opening half.

A free throw from Jamie Novotny, who finished with 8 points, a Hubin 3 and a bucket inside by Novotny had the Mustangs up 22-17, but Jace Schauman hit a pair of free throws before Haala buried a 3 to tie it up again. Hubin hit another 3 to take the lead back for BLHS, but Berkner scored inside before Haala got a steal leading to an and-one to put Sleepy Eye up 27-25.

After BLHS tied it up again after that, Okerman sank a pair of 3s and Haala added one in the final minute for a 36-29 halftime lead.

“We started to bring some full-court pressure, just man full-court pressure,” Romberg said. “But as they got more fatigued we decided to bring that in the second half and that was kind of the plan that they’d be more worn down and more prone to make some mistakes.”

Sleepy Eye extended its lead to 9 early in the second half, but the Mustangs made a push and cut their deficit to 42-40 after buckets from Novotny and Hubin. The Indians had a late 7-0 run after several BLHS turnovers and ended up taking their largest lead of the game with the final score.

Now the Indians turn their attention to BOLD, who beat them 63-39 earlier in the season. It was much earlier, however, as it was both team’s first game of the season.

BOLD held off No. 7-seeded Cedar Mountain in Thursday’s first game of the day at Sibley East.

“We are playing quite a bit better against a zone defense now,” Romberg said. “BOLD, tonight against Cedar Mountain, they ran a zone. Our girls, when we decide to slow down and break down the zone, which we’re pretty good at when we want to do it, I’m hoping that we can force them out of zone into man, but we’ll see on that. O

“Obviously we’re shooting a little better, didn’t really show tonight, but with games leading up to this, we’ve been shooting the ball better, especially from the 3, so that’ll help.”