Knights fall in season opener to Rebels

Staff photo by Ari Selvey
Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ George Schwint cruises down the lane for a shot during a nonconference boys basketball game against Murray County Central during the Sleepy Eye Tip-Off Invitational Friday at Sleepy Eye High School.

SLEEPY EYE — Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s shooting went cold in a 57-46 loss to Murray County Central to open the boys basketball season at the Sleepy Eye Tip-Off Invitational at Sleepy Eye High School.

“I thought earlier in the game we were way to quick on our offense,” Sleepy Eye head coach Judd Walter said. “I thought we could have gotten some easier inside looks and get yourself going inside. So I didn’t like our shot selection early in the offense, early in the game. But as the game went on, we struggled to get the ball in the hoop and handle the pressure.”

George Schwint led the Knights with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Kessler Severson and Adam Steffensmeier each had 11 points and seven rebounds.

St. Mary’s didn’t hit a 3-pointer until the 12:13 mark of the second half, when Steffensmeier hit a corner shot.

St. Mary’s did start off the game with a 6-0 run, led by a pair of layups by Schwint, but the Rebels came back to take a 11-8 lead on a 3-pointer by Tristan Behrends. St. Mary’s struggled against the Rebel’s full-court trap defense, turning the ball over and missing shots to allow MCC to take a 25-14 lead. Severson got a driving layup to go late in the half, but MCC’s Gavin Gillette responded with a floater to end the half with a 27-16 Rebels lead.

Things looked to be the same at the start of the second half for St. Mary’s, with the Rebels taking a 38-20 lead on a corner 3 by Gillette. However, Steffensmeier hit his 3-pointer, and St. Marys’ Tyler Mathiowetz hit two more 3s and Schwint rattled in another to put some energy back into the St. Mary’s lineup.

“Tyler Mathiowetz hit a couple 3s in transition, which was big,” Walter said. “It kind of took the lid off a little bit. We were struggling to score, so that was a little bit of spark there, but unfortunately we had a hard time putting the ball in the hoop for a long period of time.”

Schwint’s 3 put the lead at 50-32, and the Knights found some more offensive rhythm down the stretch, with a driving layup by Severson and a steal and score by Schwint cutting the lead down to 53-38.

“I liked our resilience,” Walter said. “It would have been easy to pack it up when we were down 17, but I liked the way that we battled. We played until the end, which was good to see. I know the guys have a lot of fight in them. I liked that part of them, I think we have a lot of stuff to work on, but we have a lot of new faces out there that came along. We’ll make some adjustments and be ready to go.”

However, the lead proved to be too great for St. Mary’s to overcome, with the closest the Knights cutting the lead to being 52-45 on a spinning paint shot by Steffensmeier. MCC was able to hit a few free throws in the bonus to seal the game away.

St. Mary’s (0-1) continues play in the Sleepy Eye Tip-Off Invitational with a game against Tracy-Milroy-Balaton Saturday at Sleepy Eye High School.