Knights

surprise

Chargers

By PAUL DUNLAP

Journal Sports Editor

ST. PETER -- The Sleepy Eye St. Mary's boys basketball team upset second-seed Le Center and third-seed Cedar Mountain/Comfrey on its way to the Section 2-1A, North Subsection championship game.

Monday night, top-seed Minnesota Valley Lutheran was added to the list.

The Knights played a near-flawless game, holding off the Chargers 68-62 at Gustavus Adolphus' Gus Young Court to advance to Friday's Section 2-1A championship game.

St. Mary's (11-15) will face South Subsection winner Mankato Loyola (16-9), 5 p.m., at Minnesota State-Mankato's Taylor Center. MVL ends its season at 23-3, snapping a 20-game winning streak.

"We're on a little roll here," Knight coach Peter Roufs said. "We knew this (MVL) team was going to be our biggest obstacle, and we have total respect for them. We had to slow (the pace) down, take care of the ball, and hit our free throws. ... We had to play a near-perfect game in order to win, and fortunately we did."

"(St. Mary's) hit their free throws, and didn't hurt themselves," Charger coach Craig Morgan said. "They didn't make mistakes, and I thought played a perfect game. We, on the other hand, had too many turnovers in the first half and didn't hit enough of our free throws in the second half."

Adam Fischer started out hot, lifting the Knights to a quick 10-4 lead by scoring eight of those points -- the last two coming on a nice fadeaway jumper. MVL's Dan Unke tried to keep pace by scoring six first-quarter points, but the Chargers were never able to take a first-half lead. Fischer finished with a game-high 22 points.

"We just wanted to take great shots, no bad ones," Roufs said. "Adam shoots the ball well, around 60 percent for the year, so when he concentrated on finding a good shot we knew that he could hit them."

Two more Fischer buckets helped St. Mary's to its largest lead of the first half -- at 23-14 -- but foul problems allowed MVL to make up points from the line. Jesse Pfeifer went 4-for-4 from the stripe, and Aaron Madson came off the bench to score five big points as the Chargers were able to tie the game at 25-25 heading into the locker room.

"They just ran a very good half-court offense," Morgan said of St. Mary's. "They were patient, and we expended a lot of energy on defense. I don't know ... they just played really well."

The Knights blew the game open in the second half, beginning with Randy Braun's 3-pointer. He would hit another one, along with John Pelzel, and Fischer's three-point play with under three minutes left in the third gave St. Mary's a 42-29 lead. The lead would remain in double digits for the remainder of the quarter, which ended on Kyle Ludewig's bucket and a 48-35 Knight lead.

"They spread it out on us, and we didn't play defense well enough (in the third quarter)," Morgan said.

"I think our kids started to believe a little bit," Roufs said of the 23-point outburst in the third. "We knew we still needed to attack the basket, and (MVL) had to come at us. On a big floor like this, that was to our advantage as we were able to spread it out some more."

The Chargers would make a run early in the fourth, spearheaded by two free throws and a basket from Pfeifer, to pull within 48-43, but the Knights would win the game from the free-throw line. St. Mary's scored 18 of its 20 fourth-quarter points from the stripe, including 7-for-10 in the final 1:10.

"I thought free throws were huge for us tonight," Roufs said. "I don't know how many we made (31), but we needed all of them. I'm just so proud of our guys."

Besides Fischer, freshman Ludewig stepped up with 14 points while Braun scored 12 and Pelzel added 10.

Pfeifer had 20 points and seven rebounds to lead the Chargers. Unke added 13 while Tom Metzger and Madson each scored 10.

"We would've liked to have gone further ... everybody would," Morgan said. "But St. Mary's is on a roll right now. They played really well, and we wish them the best of luck."

The Crusaders, top seed in the South, are all that stand between St. Mary's and a trip to state.

"We haven't thought at all about (Loyola)," Roufs said. "We had a huge mountain to climb with MVL, and we had to get by these guys before we even would start thinking about the next game."

SESM 17 8 23 20--68

MVL 13 12 10 27--62

SESM (68): Fischer 22, Ludewig 14, Braun 12, Pelzel 10, Novotny 5, Fuchs 3, Mathiowetz 2.

MVL (62): Pfeifer 20, Unke 13, Metzger 10, Madson 10, Ohm 5, Liggett 4.