MANKATO — With an 11-point lead and a bit of foul trouble, the Mankato Loyola boys basketball team didn’t like where it sat at halftime of Tuesday’s Section 2A tournament game.

“We weren’t playing our hardest,” senior Jake Clements said. “Coach told us — and we knew it at the half — that we had to start playing hard and get after them.”

The Crusaders did just that, kicking off the second half of the South Subsection quarterfinal game with a convincing run en route to a 74-48 victory over Truman at the Fitzgerald gym.

Loyola went on an 18-2 run out of the halftime break to go up 42-20.

“We had to come out and bring our energy,” Loyola coach Tim Anderson said. “We needed to pressure them and play our game.”

Clements scored 10 of his game-high 17 points in the second half. Teammates Austin Maher and Luke Hermer finished with 12 points apiece. Hermer also had 10 assists for a double-double. Carson Seifert scored 10 points.

Loyola pressed and forced several of their 12 steals in the second half, turning those turnovers into layups. Clements finished off four breaks in a row to put the Crusaders up 59-45 with 81⁄2 minutes to play.

“It was a slow pace in the first pace, and we’re more of a fast-paced team,” Clements said. “We started running on them in the second half.”

Loyola had a strong start to first half, too, running the floor and outscoring Truman 10-1. Later, a 9-2 run put the Crusaders up 21-8.

But the game slowed down when the Crusaders got into foul trouble, and the Bluejays were able to hang around.

Truman’s Micah Knutson scored three of his 12 points in the final minute of the half to make it a nine-point game, but Maher’s inside basket in the closing seconds gave Loyola a 29-18 lead at the break.

“In the second half we stayed out of foul trouble and got to play our game,” Anderson said. “The first four minutes, we got out and got after them, and it was on.”

Cade Ekstrom led Truman (9-16) with 14 points. Damarko Thomas added eight points.

On Thursday, Loyola (18-7) will host Southwest Star Concept, a 75-68 winner over Springfield.