ABOVE: Martin County West’s Avery Sanders (4) looks to score in the paint while Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Olivia Schieffert goes for the ball during a Section 2A girls basketball tourney semifinals game on Monday at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.

ST. PETER — First-half turnovers and cold shooting in the second half spelled trouble for the Martin County West Mavericks Monday night against the top-seeded Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s Knights.

The Knights had an 11-point lead at halftime and improved their shooting in the second half to down the fourth-seeded Mavericks 64-33 in the Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals at Gustavus Adolphus College.

Emily Anderson finished with 17 points to lead the Mavs as they finished their season 23-7 overall. Maddie Carlson added 4 points.

Morgan Mathiowetz finished with 29 points, seven rebounds, five assists and seven steals to lead the Knights, now 28-2. Olivia Schieffert picked things up for the Knights in the second half with 8 points and finished the game with 13 points total and 11 assists. Brynne Ibberson added 13 points and six rebounds.

The Knights’ win moved them on to Friday’s 6 p.m. section finals game against second-seeded BOLD, which beat Sleepy Eye Monday night 60-41. The championship game will take place at Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Bresnan Arena.

While the Knights struggled to get their 3s to drop in the game and finished with five made, they didn’t need them with how they were utilizing backdoor screens and cuts to the hoop, especially in the second half.

“I feel like they knew us, so they knew that Morgan is a really great 3-point shooter and we also have some other good 3-point shooters,” Schieffert said. “So just knowing that they’re going to overplay and then being able to do a shot fake or take it to the rim.”

Both teams did in fact know each other well as they played Feb. 13 and Feb. 20 at St. Mary’s High School, both ending with the same 61-34 score. The second game was for the Tomahawk-Valley Conference title.

The Mavericks committed 27 turnovers to the Knights’ nine in the game, but 16 of those MCW turnovers came in the first half. Despite the Mavericks getting their turnover number down after halftime, their shooting went cold and the Knights pounced as they outscored the Mavs 33-13 in the second half.

Leading 31-20 at halftime, the Knights upped their lead to 35-20 early in the second half after a bucket inside by Ibberson and a steal that led to a layup by Schieffert. Emily Anderson hit a 3 to stop the brief 5-0 run by the Knights, but Ibberson answered with back with a 3 of her own before Mathiowetz converted an and-one for a 41-23 lead to force an MCW timeout with 12:40 left to play.

Emily Anderson scored out of the timeout in the paint, but a Natalie Fischer 3 kicked off a 15-0 run that put the Knights up 56-25.

After a layup by Schieffert had the Knights up 62-27, a timeout was taken with 4:28 left. The Mavs got their only back-to-back buckets in the half out of the timeout when Courtney Anderson and Carlson scored inside to trail 62-31.

Schieffert got a basket back for the Knights before Abby Wohlhuter scored the final bucket of the game for the Mavs for the final score.

The Knights opened the game with a 9-0 run, with the Mavericks committing four consecutive turnovers during that stretch. A Mathiowetz steal for a layup completed the run as Emily Schettler scored in the paint to put the Mavs on the board.

After Mathiowetz banked in a mid-range jumper to complete an 8-0 Knights run, Emily Anderson hit a 3 to make it a 17-7 game. Mathiowetz hit her second and final 3 of the night to answer and put the Knights up 20-7.

Bailey Larson hit a mid-range jumper minutes later to have the Mavs back within single digits, 27-18, but the Knights took a double-digit lead back at the half after a long 3-point shot from Emily Anderson to beat the halftime buzzer hit off the front of the rim.