SLEEPY EYE — When two teams play each other within a week, the game rarely goes the exact same way.

In the first-ever Tomahawk-Valley Conference Girls Basketball Championship game on Thursday, however, the score didn’t change at all from last Thursday’s matchup between Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s and Martin County West as St. Mary’s once again earned a 61-34 victory.

“It’s something different this year, and both teams had really good years,” St. Mary’s head coach Bruce Woitas said. “We just played them a week ago in a regular season game and potentially could play them in the playoffs again real soon, because we’re on the same side of the bracket. But our kids worked hard, we came out a little sluggish offensively, but we really played like you need to play defense tonight, and hopefully we continue to do that as we get ready for playoffs.”

Morgan Mathiowetz led the Knights with 32 points, 10 rebounds, five steals and four assists, while Natalie Fischer had 9 points, four assists and two steals. Olivia Schieffert added 8 points, four assists and two steals.

Photo by Ari Selvey Martin County West’s Avery Sanders goes up for a layup during the Tomahawk-Valley Conference Girls Basketball Championship game against Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s Thursday at St. Mary’s High School.

Emily Anderson scored 15 points with four 3-pointers to lead MCW, while Courtney Anderson had 9 points. Maddie Carlson and Emily Schettler each had 4 points for the Mavericks.

While the score may not have changed from a week ago, the game had some significant differences from the previous matchup.

“I thought early on they tried to get it inside a little bit,” Woitas said. “I thought we shot very poorly to start the game. We had good looks, the ball just didn’t go in the hoop. You’re going to get that, but I thought defensively we put good pressure on them and made it hard for them to do what they wanted to do offensively.”

Defense was the theme of the game for both teams, with the 61 points tying a season low for St. Mary’s and 34 points being the second-lowest scoring total for the Mavericks. The first half was even more of a defensive battle, with St. Mary’s holding a 24-14 lead going into the break.

“We are a defensive team,” MCW head coach Cliff Anderson said. “So I’m very proud of our girls defensively, we work hard on the defensive end. So I think we understand that part of the game pretty good.”

Woitas agreed that defense was the most important part of the win for St. Mary’s.

“Defense was the key tonight,” he said. “Our offense eventually came around, but we played a good team. They play hard, they’re real physical, they have a great player in Emily Anderson. It was nice to come away with this one.”

But while MCW continued to struggle to get points in the second half, St. Marys’ offense kicked into gear down the stretch.

“I think last game we came out ready more than this game,” Fischer said. “We came out offensively pretty slow, we didn’t move the ball very well. But as we came out in the second half, we moved the ball better. That better defense makes better ball movement, so that helped us out a lot.”

Coach Anderson said his team needed to be more aggressive in looking for shots when the offense is having trouble scoring.

“We’ve just got to figure it out on offense to get some girls to attack the basket and to shoot when they’re open a little more,” he said.

Despite the loss, coach Anderson said his team did a good job of containing the top-seeded team in Section 2A.

“I thought our first half was a tremendous first half,” he said. “Holding them to 24 points in the first half was phenomenal for our defense. Our offense has sputtered because of their great team defense. They’ve got a lot of weapons, they’re well coached, but our offense is sputtering right now.

“But you hold a good team like that to 24 points in the first half, and even 61, you’ve got to get your offense going to be in ball games. And give them credit, their defensive tenacity was really good and didn’t let us do what we wanted to do.”

MCW held the early advantage, going up 4-0 on a layup from Courtney Anderson and a short jumper from Carlson as St. Mary’s went scoreless for the first five minutes of play. However, the Knights’ defense kept them in it as the offense stalled, and Mathiowetz got the ball rolling with a steal that led to a layup. After a mid-range shot from Schettler, the Knights went on a 17-0 run, led by 6 points by both Brynne Ibberson and Mathiowetz, to take a 19-6 lead. MCW took a timeout towards the end of the run as Emily Anderson pulled the Mavericks out of their skid with her first 3-pointer. She followed that up with her second 3-pointer to cut the lead to 21-14, but Mathiowetz responded with a 3-pointer of her own to take the 24-14 lead into half.

Avery Sanders got the scoring going in the second with a layup for the Mavericks, then a 3-pointer from Emily Anderson put the score at 26-19. The Knights scored 7 unanswered in response, with a 3 from Fischer putting them up 33-19. Anderson made a 3-pointer to cut it to 33-22, but St. Mary’s was on a roll, going up 41-24 before a timeout with 7:33 to play. Mathiowetz hit a layup and a 3-pointer before MCW called another timeout with 3:52 to go as the Knights took a 51-29 lead, then Mathiowetz cashed in two more shots from range to go up 57-34. One final layup from Mathiowetz brought out the reserves, sealing the victory.

St. Mary’s now goes into the Section 2A tournament with a 25-2 matchup and will play 16th-seeded Gibbon-Faifax-Winthrop at home as the top seed on Monday. Fischer said that defense has to be the priority as St. Mary’s looks to make a deep playoff run.

“We have to come out ready to play every single game,” Fischer said. “Playoffs are do-or-die, so defense is going to be the key.”

MCW, meanwhile, comes into the Section 2A tournament with a 21-6 record as the fourth seed and will host 13-seeded Alden-Conger/Glenville-Emmons on Monday. Coach Anderson said that playing the top team in the tournament was good preparation for tournament play.

“These games are good for us to get us ready in the playoffs,” he said. “Maybe if we play well we’ll get to play them again and see if we can improve on what we have done.”