Sleepy Eye St. Mary's

Late Sunday night and I'm back in the saddle with the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper sports department fired up.

The Sleepy Eye St. Mary's boys' basketball team defeated BOLD 64-57 in their subsection championship game. Last Friday against Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey, the Knights won 62-40. They are led by a "big three" of proven scorers and have solid threats in their fourth and fifth-best scorers as well. In their playoff opener, senior forward Carson Domeier scored his 2,000th career point. He scored 18 points in both the subsection and section title games last week. He also had 10 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals.

In SESM's state semifinal game last year at Target , a 65-53 loss to Hancock, then-sophomore guard Kaleb Wait led the Knights with 19 points and 4 steals. Then-junior guard Trent Steffensmeier added 17 points. SESM held a 34-29 halftime lead over Hancock, who then tied the game at 39-39 in the second half with 14:27 to go.

Playing the Section 2A championship at Bresnan Arena on the campus of Mankato State University gives SESM an edge in terms of their transition to Williams Arena. This is something to keep in mind for Wednesday's game!

With all that said, B-B-E has one big advantage at this point with a defensive average of about 49 points per game compared to 57 points a game for SESM. The Knights are a high-octane type of team that averages 74 points per contest. For what it's worth, New York Mills averaged 75 points per game before being held to 65 points by B-B-E on Friday night.

In other news...
The B-B-E high school will host a state tournament pep fest and send-off on Tuesday this week from 1:45 to 2:15 p.m.

**Here's a video clip from the final ticks of halftime in the Sub-Section 6A-South semis:


Have you purchased your state tickets yet for Wednesday? The cost is $17 for adults and $11 for students. They must be purchased online at https://www.mshsl.org/tickets.

Also! As of Monday night, the spectator bus for the state tournament has about 30 signed up. They have room for more people!