ROCHESTER — The No. 2 seeded Lyle-Pacelli girls basketball team went inside early and often and No. 3 Grand Meadow didn’t have an answer as the Athletics stormed past the Superlarks 57-22 in a Section 1A West semifinal game in Mayo Civic Center Tuesday.

Kristi Fett poured in 26 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the win for LP (22-6 overall). She scored 10 of those points in an opening 18-2 run that also saw Brooke Walter hit two three-pointers for LP.

“We made a concerted effort to get Kristi the ball early and that’s what we worked on in practice,” LP head coach Justin Morris said. “We knew there was nobody who could match up with her size-wise. She was unbelievable.”

Bethany Strouf added 13 points, five rebounds and four assists for the Athletics and she was one of the LP players who more than happy to feed Fett inside the paint for much of the first half.

“Kristi is so tall and we can just dump it into her. It’s something we talked about before the game,” Strouf said. “We wanted to have our energy high right away and not let it get as close as last game.”

Jordyn Glynn led the Superlarks (19-9 overall) with eight points. GM committed 24 turnovers in the loss and it 28-4 before it was able to get much offense going in the first half.

“It was tough. I knew they were going to go into [Fett]. We had to pick our poison,” GM head coach Ryan Queensland said. “We tried to keep her in front of us a little so we could keep our defenders on the perimeter, but she started eating us alive down there. Then we had to start doubling down and helping and they were hitting their outside shots. We got beat by a better team tonight.”

LP will now move on face No. 1 Goodhue in the Section 1A West title game in Mayo Civic Center 8 p.m. Saturday. The Athletics had their season come to an end at the hands of the Wildcats last season and they lost 54-49 in overtime to Goodhue Jan. 7.

“We’ve talked about this game for a long time,” Morris said. “A lot people wanted to see it and I guess they’re going to get what they wanted to see. We’ve got to handle the ball, we’ve got to be poised and we’ve got to be mentally locked in defensively.”

Strouf is looking forward to Saturday’s showdown as well.

“We can’t wait for that game. We have another opportunity and we’re all really excited for a good game,” she said.

GM 13   9   —  22

LP 43  14  —  57

LP scoring: Kristi Fett, 26; Bethany Strouf, 13; Brooke Walter, 12; Olivia Christianson, 3; Kendal Truckenmiller, 2; Danielle Hinz, 1; free throws: 60 percent (6-for-10); rebounds: 30 (Fett, 13); turnovers: 17

GM scoring: Jordyn Glynn, 8; Riley Queensland, 6; Isabelle Olson, 3; Kaitlyn Hilton, 3; Masie Voigt, 2; free throws: 33 percent (1-for-3); rebounds: 21 (Queensland, 4); turnovers: 24