Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye Steepy Eye St. Mary’s Frishman Olivia Schieffert (2) will look for open players in the Knights Section 2A title game with Bold at Bresnan Arena in Mankato on March 7th.
Minneapolis – The last time the sleepy St. Mary’s Girls basketball team held a state tournament in 2021.
“It was Covid and I went and watched one game.” said Amelia Schwartz of St. Mary’s. “It was fun, but it wasn’t everything I wanted when I went to a state tournament.”
Schwartz was still on the JV team that year, but this time he was able to travel full with the rest of her team as the only senior starter on the team.
“i’m so excited” Schwartz said. “And I think the rest of our team is just above the moon.”
St. Mary’s head coach Bruce Woitas said the team is making the most of their experience going to the state tournament.
“I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.” He said. “They have worked really hard all year round to win this opportunity. We are trying to make the most of it and get that full experience. There is a banquet on Tuesday night (March 12th). We will come and come and come back on Thursday and try our best to compete and represent our section. I think the kids will be excited by it, and we are excited for them too.”
St. Mary’s will be sown third in the tournament and will take on the sixth seed Sacred Heart Eagles in the first round of the tournament at the University of Minnesota’s Machuri Pavilion at the Mathuri Pavilion. Sacred Heart went 24-6 this season and came out from Section 8, northwest of Minnesota. The Eagles average 63.6 points per game and give up an average of 48.2 points. Meanwhile, St. Mary’s averages 75.8 points and 40 points.
“From what we’ve seen from them, they’re just as young as us.” Uetus said. “I think they started out with four sophomores. They’re a bit sized and have two six footers (Lydia Riskey and Lexi Lawrence), so they try to really highlight their internal games as well. Based on what we saw, we really like the matchups we have, so I feel pretty good about that matchup we bring.
“It looks like they’re going to be a really crude team. They seem to play more of one-on-one type defense and apply such pressure and stuff. It’s something we haven’t seen in a while, so hopefully we’ll be ready for it and it should be a fun battle.”
St. Mary’s has a smaller team this year, but there are also simple teams. When it comes to getting a bigger team, Woitas said it’s likely that they’ll become players who get taller to prevent them from getting a post touch.
“We’ll highlight that.” Uetus said. “We’ve got the back side and if we can refuse and play the front side and get it, and that’s one way we’ve really played recently. Our defense is really effective, one-on-one, and if we can do that – there’s obviously a few girls, and we’ve defended them pretty well – if we can do what we were doing in 31 games this year, then we have the opportunity to play well.”
St. Mary’s probably had three strong tests of that strategy against West Martin County this year. MCW’s top scorer Emily Anderson was a skilled postscorer who led the Mavericks to a 23-7 season, but the Knights defeated the Mavericks in three matches this season.
St. Mary’s is hoping to join the game with a 27-2 record, defending basketball and continuing to succeed in getting the ball to multiple scorers.
“We started off on the offensively bold game late.” Uetus said. “So you need to make sure that all your possessions are important. You have to have good positive possessions throughout the game. And in a game like this, there’s probably time for momentum to sway, and answer them and you’re just ready to stay in the game for 36 minutes.”
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