Mayer Lutheran beats St. Mary's

Knights take second place in Tip-Off Tournament, JCC grabs third

BY JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- Mayer Lutheran forced 24 St. Mary's turnovers, scoring 16 points from them, as the Crusaders captured the championship of the Tip-Off Classic with a 51-36 win Saturday afternoon.

Christine Tews and Christie Stuewe each scored 12 points for Mayer Lutheran with Amanda Jones adding eight.

Ashley Meyer led the Lady Knights with 12 points.

"Coming into the game, we knew that they were going to be a tough team to match-up with," said Knights' coach Bruce Woitas. "They have a lot of their players back -- they only lost three games last year. They are a unique team in that they have good height (two starters 6-foot 2 and another 5-foot 11) but yet those girls can handle the ball and are fairly athletic."

And that athletic ability showed up in the first quarter when the Crusaders forced 10 Knight turnovers and scored eight points off of them.

In the first eight minutes, Mayer Lutheran took a comfortable 16-3 lead, as the Knights missed all eight shots from the field. Their only points came from a trey by Ashley Meyer.

That shot would pull St. Mary's to 4-3 -- the closest they would come all game -- before the Crusaders ran up 12 straight points, half of them courtesy of Knight turnovers.

"The turnovers hurt us," said Woitas. "But their transition baskets hurt us. We did not get back defensively."

The Crusaders would see that lead balloon to an 18-3 margin early in the second quarter before the Knights finally got their offense jump-started when Emily Schwartz canned two free throws with 6:17 left in the quarter.

That began a span of just over two minutes when St. Mary's outscored Mayer 10-1 to pull within five points at 19-14. A three point play by Schwartz preceded a second three-pointer by Meyer who followed that up with a steal and a bucket.

But Mayer, who got to the final by beating a good Jackson County Central team Friday night, gained some momentum back with a 12-4 run to end the first half and carried a 31-18 lead into halftime.

Two early baskets by the Crusaders moved them into a 35-21 lead before the Knights again fought back to slice the lead to 36-30 on a free throw by Meyer, an Ariel Krenz rebound basket and back-to-back baskets by Annie Suker with 1:54 left in the third quarter.

But turnovers -- many coming unforced -- let the Crusaders run off eight unanswered points for a 44-30 lead halfway through the final quarter.

"We made a lot of unforced turnovers. It is early in the year, and we let everyone get out and play a little bit," Woitas said. "Hopefully, we can improve upon those things, not be hurt by that later on in the season. And our girls didn't quit. We normally do not talk about ball possession this early in the year. When you play a good team like Mayer and you turn the ball over, they are going to cash in."

Despite the loss, Woitas was pleased with a number of things.

"Overall, we played better in the second half when we closed the game to six points. We did not quit after having a rough start," he said.

Woitas will see his team host cross-town rival Sleepy Eye Public Tuesday, December 3, at 7:30 p.m.

Jackson County Central won third place with a 58-30 win over Faribault Bethlehem Academy earlier Saturday.

Jamie Wheeler led JCC with a game high 23 points.

SLEEPY EYE ST. MARY'S

3 -- 15 -- 12 -- 6 = 36

MAYER LUTHERAN

16 -- 15 -- 9 -- 11 = 51

SESM (36)

Meyer 12, E. Schwartz 8, Suker 8, Schumacher 3, Cook 3, Krenz 2.

MAYER LUTHERAN (51)

C. Stuewe 12, Tews 12, Jones 8, T. Stuewe 7, Lane 7, Young 3, Hoffmann 2.