Knights split a doubleheader with Edgerton
Travis King goes for a layup against Edgerton in the RTR Knights 78-43 win at home.
By Jim Kopel
Tribute Sports
The RTR boys and girls played host to the Edgerton Flying Dutchmen last Monday. The boys came away with a 78-43 victory while the girls were beaten by Edgerton by a score of 57-36.
The RTR boys jumped to a 20-point advantage after only 10 minutes of play with the score being 30- 10. Levi DeRuyter scored the first six points for the Knights and Shay Wabeke would score six points toward the end of that big run, one of the baskets on a steal. Things slowed down the rest of the half for the team as the Dutchmen outscored the Knights 10-6 the last eight minutes, with the score being 36-20 at break.
The two teams traded buckets early in the second half with the visitors getting their deficit down to 13 points. Finally a 3-pointer by Philip Madsen and a DUNK by Dylan Kor provided some excitement. Two 3-pointers by Brett Peterson showed a score of 59-38 at the midway point of the second half. Travis King also had two baskets during this time, one of them on a nice fast break situation.
Travis King would nail five straight points, three of them on a 3-point play to bring this game to the victory land for the Knights. Shay Wabeke would get a rebound basket to finish the scoring night for the Knights.
The Knights finally got what they have been looking for all year, balanced scoring. Three different players would score 14 points. Travis King, Dylan Kor and Brett Peterson all scored 14, while Philip Madsen added 11, nine of them on three 3-pointers. Shay Wabeke contributed eight points while Brett Vercruysse and Levi DeRuyter chipped in with six points. Nathen Condelli finished the scoring column with five points.
Kor led the rebounding with 10 boards. He also had seven assists and two blocks. DeRuyter had seven blocked shots in the game. The Knights had 14 blocked shots as a team. Madsen had three steals. The Knights were nine of 12 from the line while the Dutchmen were five of eight. The Knights had the rebound edge, 32 to 25.
The win stopped a brief two-game losing streak. The record now stands at 12 wins and three losses. Next up is an encounter with the Minneota Vikings, the last home game of the year for the team. That game is Friday, Feb. 3.
The RTR girls had their problems scoring enough points against Edgerton. The game was close for about six minutes when the Flying Dutchmen got hot from the outside. They would hit about five shots from about 15 feet to gather a 26-16 score with about four minutes remaining. The half time score was 34-18. Leslie Willert and Kaylie Nielsen each scored six points for the Lady Knights in the first half.
Three straight baskets by Nielsen early in the second half showed a 36-26 score. It sure looked like the Knights were ready for a comeback. A basket by Kristin Knudsen would still show a 10-point deficit, but things were looking up. A basket by Allison Pochardt and a free throw by Janae Minett showed a score of 42-31. There was still plenty of time to make that comeback.
The visitors would then score five straight points before Wendy Andersen would nail a 3-pointer. The visitors would then score 10 of the final 12 points to bring the final score to 57-36. The Lady Knights could only muster nine points for every nine minutes of play in this game. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that is a point a minute.
Kaylie Nielsen had 12 points to lead the Knights in scoring while grabbing seven rebounds. Allison Pochardt led the rebounding with nine boards. She also had three blocked shots. Wendy Andersen had four of the team’s nine steals. Edgerton had the rebounding edge, 42 to 33. The Lady Knights struggled at the free throw line, going five for 17.
The Lady Knights travel to Canby on Feb. 2 and the B squad and ninth grade will play host to the Echo Charter team on Monday, Feb. 6. (GO TEAMS)
Filed under Sports |Lady Knights suffer double overtime loss to KMS 74-70
By Jim Kopel
Tribute Sports
It was 97 miles to get to the game site last Tuesday. The game with KMS was played in Murdock. It is a rather cozy gym, but it did have glass boards and wooden floors. The place was an ideal place to play for two teams that have been struggling with their shooting most of the year. So why not really enjoy the situation? Yes, both teams scored some points, but in the end the Fighting Saints probably enjoyed the situation more as they would come away with a thrilling double-overtime win over the traveling Lady Knights by a 74-70 score.
Neither team made a lot of noise in the first half on the scoring part of the game. The game was tied at 16 with five minutes remaining in the half. A Kaylie Nielsen basket gave the Knights an 18-16 lead. The Saints would score six straight points to take their first lead of the game with about two minutes remaining. The score was 25-20 for the home team when a 3-pointer by Hannah Daniels and a 2-pointer by Kristin Knudsen tied the game at 25. That would be your halftime score.
Early in the second half the Saints scored a flurry of points to grab a seven-point advantage. The score would be 38-30 when Leslie Willert would score to make a score of 38-32. The Saints would again have their biggest lead of eight points when Nielsen and Wendy Andersen would hit back-to-back baskets to trim their deficit to four points.
Baskets by Janae Minett and Justine Possail helped the cause, but the Knights still trailed by six points with about seven minutes remaining. Andersen would score on another fast break basket and Nielsen would hit three baskets to knot things up at 53.
The stage was set for an exciting finish. Three straight points by the home team gave them the three-point lead. Wendy Andersen would answer the call for the Knights, nailing a 3-pointer from way out with 10 seconds remaining to tie the score at 56. The first overtime had arrived.
The Lady Knights had an excellent chance to end things in the first overtime. They had three different leads, one of them being three points. However, ball handling errors gave the ball back on three different occasions. The score was tied at 63 and the Knights had the ball. Two shots were attempted to win the game, but both of them failed.
The Fighting Saints would grab a four-point advantage in the second overtime and never lose the lead. Another Andersen 3-pointer got the deficit to one point with 77 seconds left. However, free throws for the Saints made the final difference.
“Once again we had our chances to win,” said Coach Dahle. “We are having trouble right now closing things out. Those little things (mistakes) come back to haunt us when it hurts the most.”
Kaylie Nielsen led the team in scoring with 21 points. Wendy Andersen added 16 points, 12 of them coming late in the game and overtime; she also had six assists. Janae Minett had seven rebounds and four steals. Leslie Willert was a double-digit scorer with 11 points.
Rebounding favored the Fighting Saints by a whopping 56 to 37 margin. However, the turnovers evened things up as the Lady Knights forced 30 while committing only nine. Free throws were not shot very well by either team as the Knights made 12 of 21 while the Saints were hitting 17 of 33.
The Lady Knights continue their season with a conference trip to Canby this Thursday. The record for the Ladies now stands at four wins and 11 losses.
The B Team and ninth grade were more successful against KMS. Courtney Mensen used many moves to score 17 points as the B Team beat KMS 59-22. DestineeStrandadded 14. Nine different girls found the scorebook. Dana Schaefer collected seven points while Shayna Possail and Janel Wichern had six points apiece. The ninth grade scored 55 points while allowing only 16 in their win. Jessica Kronke had 14 points and seven rebounds. Amanda Petersen, Janel Wichern and Mackenzie Buse added 13, 12 and 10 points, respectively. McKensie Petersen, Jasi Borman and Shelby Kern were also participants in the successful outing.
BOXSCORES
RTR 25 31 7 7 70
KMS 25 31 7 11 74
3pt FG FT Pts.
J.Possail 0 1 2/2 4
S.Possail 0 0 0/0 0
Andersen 2 5 0/0 16
Daniels 1 0 0/0 3
Knudsen 0 1 2/2 4
Erickson 0 0 0/0 0
Willert 0 5 1/1 11
Dunblazier0 0 0/0 0
Minett 1 1 2/6 7
Pochardt 0 1 2/4 4
Mensen 0 0 0/0 0
Nielsen 0 9 3/4 21
TOTALS 4 23 12/21 70
Filed under Sports |RTR teams lose doubleheader in Ortonville
Tribute Sports
The RTR girls and boys teams had rough sledding in Ortonville last Saturday as both teams fell to the Ortonville Trojan teams. The girls did average better on the points than they had been doing so far this year, but they gave up 63 points to lose the battle. The boys, on the other hand, produced their lowest point total of the year with their 47 points.
The Lady Knights kept things close throughout the game as the first half score was 30-24 for the Trojans. Justine Possail and Hannah Daniels each scored five points for the team in that first half.
The Trojans outscored the Knights 10-9 the third quarter. Possail had three points in this frame for the Knights. Both teams turned on the gas in the final nine minutes of basketball. The Trojans did outscore the Lady Knights 23-19. DestineeStrandhit two 3-pointers to lead the team in this frame.
The Lady Knights had a balanced scoring attack but no one scored a lot. Justine Possail led the team with nine points. Kaylie Nielsen contributed eight while Destinee Strand added seven points. Leslie Willert and Janae Minett each had six points.
The boys probably had their coldest half of the year as they could only produce 11 points in that half. The team had only two field goals in the half, one each of a 2-pointer and a 3-pointer. The Trojans didn’t score many more points, but they did own a nine-point margin as the score was 20-11 at intermission.
The Knights got heated up the second half as they outscored the Trojans 20-16 the first nine minutes. Philip Madsen would hit two 3’s while Brett Peterson and Dylan Kor added seven and five points, respectively.
The Knights also outscored the Trojans in the last nine minutes as Peterson added nine more points to his total while Madsen nailed another 3-pointer. However, when they final totals were added in the official book, the score showed that the home team did the winning.
Brett Peterson was the Knights’ leading scorer with 21 points. Philip Madsen finished his night with 14 points while Dylan Kor added nine. Those three numbers add to 44. It doesn’t leave many points for the rest of the Knight team.
The Knights did do one thing quite well. They were 17 of 24 at the free throw line. Peterson made nine of 13 while Kor was seven of nine. The Trojans were 12 of 17 at the line.
Both teams need to find their winning ways again as the Lady Knights have now lost six straight while the Knights have lost four of their last five games.
(LET’S KEEP WORKING, TEAMS)
Filed under Sports |Lady Knights lose to Vikings in conference tilt, 66-36
By Jim Kopel
Tribute Sports
The Lady Knights lost their fifth straight game as they were defeated by the state-ranked Minneota Vikings inTylerby a 66-36 score. The Vikings remain unbeaten in conference play while the Lady Knights, with the loss, fall to two and nine in Camden Conference play.
The Lady Knights were playing without point guard Wendy Andersen on this night. Andersen, out because of an injury, was the floor leader for the team. She was also one of the top assist leaders in the area.
The first nine minutes of play did see a fairly close game. Kaylie Nielsen scored four points while Kristin Knudsen, Leslie Willert and Maria Dunblazier each scored two points. The Vikings did score 16 points during the same time, but a 16-10 score looked pretty good.
The Vikings added 19 more points to their total the second nine minutes of first half play as the Lady Knights could only muster nine points. With the halftime score showing the Vikings with a nice 35-19 score showing, it looked like lights out for the home team Knights.
The lights actually did go out at the halftime intermission. The drum line did a performance without much lighting. They did a nice job entertaining the crowd.
The second half saw the Vikings outscore the Knights 31-17. Leslie Willert and Allison Pochardt each scored four points for the Lady Knights in that second half.
Kaylie Nielsen led the Knight scoring with eight points. She also had six rebounds. Allison Pochardt had six points and four blocks. Janae Minett had five points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. Leslie Willert finished the game with six points and six rebounds. The Vikings owned the rebounding edge, 34 to 28. Taylor Reiss, a ninth grader for the Vikings, scored 27 points and had nine rebounds.
The Lady Knights, now with an overall record of 4 and 12, head to Canby this Thursday for a Camden Conference tussle. (LET’S GO LADY KNIGHTS)
The B Team game was one exciting game. The only loss for the young Lady Knights was to the Vikings at Minneota early in the year. It was now revenge time. It did not look like it was going to happen for most of the game. The Vikings had a nice lead at the half and took a 12-point advantage into the last seven minutes of the game. Coach Borchert decided to add some fire power to the Lady Knight squad at the seven-minute mark of the second half. He inserted Janel Wichern into the game. She had played a whole ninth grade game earlier. Wichern, along with her teammates, rattled the Vikings into turnovers and missed shots.
The Lady Knights were up two points with 12 seconds left when a turnover by the Ladies was turned into three points by the Vikings. The Vikings now led by a score of 36-35 with only seven seconds left. Janel Wichern would nail a short jump shot from the right baseline as the buzzer sounded to give the Lady Knights a 37-36 win. But wait! The Knights had six players on the court the last seven seconds. The referees decided to give a Viking player two foul shots, which she made to give the Vikings a one-point victory. But wait! The rule states that since the referees didn’t notice or were not informed of too many players on the court, the score when the buzzer sounded was the final score. Lady Knights win! Janel Wichern scored 12 points during her seven minutes of play, including the game winner. She got warmed up in the ninth grade game as she led the ninth grade to a 28-24 victory. She would score 16 of her team’s 28 points. Jessica Kronke added four points and seven rebounds. Shelby Kern had five points early in the game to take the team to a nice lead.
BOXSCORES
RTR 19 17 36
Minneota 35 31 66
3pt FG FT Pts.
J.Possail 0 1 0/2 2
S.Possail 0 0 0/0 0
Andersen 0 0 0/0 0
Daniels 0 0 0/0 0
Knudsen 1 2 0/1 5
Erickson 0 0 0/0 0
Willert 0 3 0/0 6
Dunblazier0 2 0/0 4
Minett 0 1 3/3 5
Pochardt 0 3 0/2 6
Mensen 0 0 0/0 0
Nielsen 0 4 0/0 8
TOTALS 1 15 3/8 36
Filed under Sports |Knights feel the sting of the D-B Blackjacks, 81 to 59
By Jim Kopel
Tribute Sports
The RTR Knights played their third-ranked team in less than a week and the outcome was basically the same as the first two. The results clearly indicated that the Knights still need to become a better basketball team if they are to compete with the more elite teams in Class 1A.
Yes, the Dawson-Boyd Blackjacks proved that they are a good ball club by handing the visiting Knights an 81 to 59 drubbing. The Jacks had a comfortable 52-29 on the scoreboard at intermission.
The game actually started out like it might be a good one from start to finish. Brett Peterson, Dylan Kor and Philip Madsen scored six, six and five points, respectively, in the first seven minutes of the game as the Knights had a 17-16 score showing in their favor. However, things changed very quickly. The Jacks would hit four 3-pointers in the next four minutes of play as they would score 18 points to only a single point for the Knights. At the four-minute mark of the first half the score was 42-22. It didn’t get much better after that.
Brett Vercruysse of the Knights did all his scoring early in the second half as the Knights were down by 16 points when he nailed a three-pointer to make the score 58-42. He scored eight points during the first five minutes of the second half.
The Blackjacks would regain their halftime margin late in the game. Nathan Condelli would finish the game with two free throws to give the second half point total to the Knights by a single point, 30-29.
Coach Kern had these thoughts after the game, “They’re quicker than us, they’re stronger than us and they shot the lights out tonight. I hope, if anything, we learned that we’re not there yet.”
Philip Madsen led the Knights’ scoring with 11 points, nine of them coming on three 3-pointers. Dylan Kor added 10 points and six rebounds. Brett Vercruysse and Nathan Condelli each contributed eight points to the cause.
The rebound battle, which is so very important in any game, was won by the Jacks 36 to 22, even though the Knights had the height advantage. The terms quickness and strength come into play here.
With the loss, the overall record falls to 12 wins and four losses. The conference record now stands at 7 and 2. The Knights still lead the south half of the conference by one game over TMB. Next up is a Friday night battle with those Minneota Vikings at Tyler. It is the last home game for the Knights. It is also a very important conference game. Let’s show our support for the team as they hope to rope the Vikings.
The B Team also felt defeat on Thursday as the Blackjacks won this one by a 48-40 score. Shane Vogt and Alex Schwing scored 13 and 10 points for the Knights. The ninth grade did beat the Blackjacks 27-23 as Kevin Andersen was all over the court in the win. He scored nine points while Brett Knudsen helped out with seven points.
BOXSCORES
RTR 29 30 59
D-B 52 29 81
3pt FG FT Pts.
Madsen 3 1 0/0 11
S.Vogt 0 0 0/0 0
K.Vogt 0 0 0/0 0
Peterson 0 3 1/2 7
King 0 2 1/2 5
Weets 0 0 0/0 0
Condelli 0 3 2/2 8
Dunblazier0 0 0/0 0
Kor 0 5 0/0 10
DeRuyter 0 3 0/0 6
Wabeke 0 1 2/3 4
Vercruysse1 2 1/4 8
TOTALS 4 20 7/13 59
Filed under Sports |Seniors recognized between double header
The RTR seniors on the boys and girls basketball teams were recognized between the double header boys and girls games Monday, Jan. 23 at home against Edgerton. Wendy Andersen, left, Kristin Knudsen, Jenae Minett, Philip Madsen, Levi DeRuyter, Travis King and Nathan Condelli were joined by their parents during part of the ceremony and are pictured above before the start of the boys game.
Lady Knights and Knights lose to SWC at SMSU
By Jim Kopel
Tribute Sports
The RTR basketball teams played the state-ranked SWC girls and boys teams on Saturday at the college inMarshall. Both teams gave the Edgerton squads some very good competition early in the game, but in the end SWC had too many weapons for the Knight teams.
The Lady Knights would lead after nine minutes of play by a score of 15-14, but were outscored 19 to 11 the second part of the first half. The Ladies were then outscored 33 to 19 the second half as they would fall by a score of 66- 45.
Kaylie Nielsen would score 13 points for the Lady Knights while Justine Possail added eight points. Nine different girls scored for the Knights, but no one else scored more than six points. The SWC team had a rebounding edge in the game. They would own a big edge in size over the smaller Knight team.
The Knight boys had a real problem on their hands in the person of Zach Huisken. Huisken is 6’ 9” player and well built for a basketball player. He pretty much had his way all day for the Eagles of SWC. He would only score 41 points, have about a dozen rebounds and about six or seven blocked shots.
The Knights actually had a 21-20 advantage after nine minutes of play. Three-pointers by Philip Madsen, Brett Peterson, Travis King and Dylan Kor in those first minutes had the RTR crowd going.
Madsen would hit another 3-pointer and two free throws while Levi DeRuyter and Travis King would connect. The score was 30-27 for the Knights with three minutes remaining in the first half. However, the Eagles would score 14 of the next 19 points to take a 41-35 advantage to intermission.
SWC would score eight of the first 10 points of the second half to put a damper on the Knights’ hopes. Brett Peterson scored 10 points during the third quarter to keep things fairly close, but a couple of dunks by Huisken made the outcome quite obvious.
The final score was 78- 65, the same score as the Friday night game with MACCRAY. The Knights probably played, overall, a bit better against SWC. Hopefully, the two games will show the team where improvements need to be made.
Brett Peterson led the Knights in scoring with 26 points. He also collected six rebounds. Philip Madsen and Shay Wabeke both struck for eight points with each boy connecting on two 3-pointers. Brett Vercruysse had seven points and six rebounds.
Both teams will travel to Ortonville on Saturday to play the Trojans in a doubleheader. The B Teams will also play with the action starting at 2 p.m.
(GO TEAMS)
BOXSCORES
RTR 26 19 45
SWC 33 33 66
3pt FG FT Pts.
J.Possail 0 4 0/1 8
S.Possail 0 0 0/0 0
Andersen 1 2 0/2 5
Daniels 0 0 0/0 0
Knudsen 0 1 2/4 4
Erickson 0 0 0/0 0
Willert 0 3 0/0 6
Dunblazier0 3 0/0 6
Minett 0 1 1/2 3
Pochardt 0 1 0/0 2
Mensen 0 1 0/0 2
Nielsen 0 6 1/1 13
TOTALS 1 19 4/10 45
BOXSCORES
RTR 35 30 65
SWC 41 37 78
3pt FG FT Pts.
Madsen 2 0 2/3 8
S.Vogt 0 0 0/0 0
K.Vogt 0 0 0/0 0
Peterson 1 9 5/6 26
King 1 1 0/0 5
Weets 0 0 0/0 0
Condelli 0 1 0/0 2
Dunblazier0 0 0/0 0
Kor 1 1 0/0 5
DeRuyter 0 2 0/0 4
Wabeke 2 1 0/0 8
Vercruysse0 3 1/2 7
TOTALS 7 18 8/11 65
Filed under Sports |Knights fall for first time in conference to MACCRAY
By Jim Kopel
Tribute Sports
The MACCRAY Wolverines showed why they are still one of the better teams in Class 1A as they put an old fashioned whipping on the RTR Knights last Friday inTyler. Both teams came into the game unbeaten in conference play. The whipping came in the first half of play as the Wolverines had as much as a 25-point lead on their way to a rather comfortable 46-25 intermission score.
The Wolverines were both tall and very athletic. Their starting lineup was over two inches taller per man than the Knights lineup. Add their quickness to the equation and the Knights looked like boys to men on the court.
The Knights had their problems in the first half as many of their close-to-the-basket shots would not fall. The size of the Wolverine players might have been the cause of the critical misses.
After the halftime break things got much better for the home team and their fans. The Knights would outscore the Wolverines 19 to 6 to start the second half. The score was 52-44 with almost 10 minutes left in the game. Brett Peterson and Philip Madsen led the charge by scoring seven and six points, respectively. A Brett Vercruysse basket at the eight-minute mark saw a score of 60-51. The Knights would get no closer the rest of the way but could say they won the second half of play by outscoring the Wolverines 40 to 32.
Brett Peterson was the scoring leader for the Knights with 23 points. Philip Madsen and Brett Vercruysse followed with nine and eight points, respectively. Dylan Kor led the rebounding with seven boards. The Wolverines shot 10 more free throws than the Knights, also making 10 more, 19 to 9.
The 11-game winning streak is now over, but the Knights still lead the south half of the conference. A rematch with the Wolverines is possible if both teams win their half of the Camden Conference. The game with Dawson- Boyd this Thursday is a very important game for the Knights since the Blackjacks are also one of the better teams in Class 1A. Let’s make the 50-mile drive toDawsonand see a good ball game.
The B Team suffered the same fate as the varsity as they fell by a 45-20 score. Shane Vogt scored eight points. The ninth grade got the night off on the right foot as they would win by a score of 29-22. Isaiah DeRuyter, Jesse Jasper, Hunter Burns and Brent Wiering each scored six points. Brett Knudsen made five of six free throws.
BOXSCORES
RTR 25 40 65
MACCRAY 46 32 78
3pt FG FT Pts.
Madsen 3 0 0/0 9
S.Vogt 0 1 0/0 2
K.Vogt 0 0 0/0 0
Peterson 1 6 8/12 23
King 0 3 1/3 7
Weets 0 0 0/0 0
Condelli 0 0 0/0 0
Dunblazier0 0 0/0 0
Kor 0 3 0/0 6
DeRuyter 0 3 0/0 6
Wabeke 0 2 0/0 4
Vercruysse0 4 0/0 8
TOTALS 4 22 9/15 65
Filed under Sports |Lady Knights lose conference battle to TMB
The Lady Knights had a very cold shooting first half in their conference battle with the TMB Panthers at Tracy last Tuesday. The Knights could only muster up 10 points in that half as the Panthers were showing 30 big points on the scoreboard at intermission.
The lid was definitely on the Knight basket the whole half. I was too busy putting the points in the book for the home team so I asked the bus driver, Don Mulloy, to take the lid off. Don refused to do that, so the rest of the first half went the same old way. The Lady Knights defense was also not very good that half as the Panthers were getting some easy baskets.
C o u r t n e y M e n s e n sparked the team in the first half as she came off the bench to hit two quick baskets that made the score 22 to 9. Justine Possail added a free throw a bit later, but that was the extent of the scoring for the half.
The Lady Knights came out the second half with some fires in their eyes. Kaylie Nielsen hit two quick baskets and Allison Pochardt scored three points on a 3-point play. Two free throws by Janae Minett and a basket by Kristin Knudsen, plus two more baskets by both Nielsen and Leslie Willert and the Lady Knights had their deficit down to 10 points. The score was 42 to 32 with nine minutes left in the game.
However, the run was over. The Panthers would follow the Knight run with a run of their own. They would have a 10 point run to recapture their 20 point advantage. The Lady Knights would only score four points the last nine minutes. Allison Pochardt and Hannah Daniels would score those points. The Lady Knights did outscore the Panthers the second half by two points.
The Panthers actually won the game at the free throw line, converting on 23 of 29 free throws. The Lady Knights made six of 14 attempts. Rebounds favored the Panthers, 28 to 22. Shooting from the floor saw the Lady Knights making only nine percent the first half, making only four baskets.
Kaylie Nielsen led the team in scoring with 13 points. Leslie Willert had seven points and led the rebounding with seven boards. Wendy Andersen and Justine Possail each had four assists while Allison Pochardt had three steals.
The Lady Knights go toDawsonthis Thursday and then play at SMSU against SWC on Saturday before returning home on Monday, Jan. 23, against Edgerton. On Tuesday the team travels to Kerkhoven to plat KMS. (GO LADY KNIGHTS)
The B Team and C Team had more success in their games. The B Team beat TMB 36 to 28 as Anna Madsen and Destinee Strand had 11 and nine points, respectively. Dana Schaefer had five points and five rebounds. The ninth grade won by a score of 23 to 16. Jessica Kronke had eight points and six rebounds. Janel Wichern had three points, seven rebounds and four steals.
BOXSCORES
RTR 10 26 36
TMB 30 24 54
3pt FG FT Pts.
J.Possail 0 0 1/4 1
S.Possail 0 0 0/0 0
Andersen 0 0 0/0 0
Daniels 0 1 0/0 2
Knudsen 0 1 0/2 2
Erickson 0 0 0/0 0
Willert 0 3 1/2 7
Dunblazier0 0 0/1 0
Minett 0 0 2/2 2
Pochardt 0 2 1/1 5
Mensen 0 2 0/0 0
Nielsen 0 6 1/2 13
TOTALS 0 15 6/14 36
Filed under Sports |Knights record tenth straight win with victory over CMCS 63 to 46
Levi DeRuyter sends a hook shot against the CMCS Bluejays in the Knights’ 63-46 win at home.
The RTR Knights re¬mained unbeaten in con¬ference play by beating the Central Minnesota Chris¬tian Bluejays last Thurs¬day. The game was by no means as easy as the final score might indicate. The home team Knights had plenty of trouble in the first half finding the bot¬tom of the hoop. Too many in-and-out shots kept the game very close the first half.
The Knights would roll to a nine point advantage after nine minutes of play in that first half, but that score of 14 to 5 slowly dwindled as the Bluejays kept chipping away. With four minutes remaining the score was knotted at 18. The Jays would have leads of two points twice late in the half. With under a minute left Shay Wabeke would nail two free throws to tie the game at 22, then steal the ball for a layup to give the Knights a score of 24 to 22 in their favor. The Bluejays would hit a last second basket to tie the game at intermission at 24. Dylan Kor had seven first half points to lead the Knights.
Brett Vercruysse and Brett Peterson would each hit two baskets to give the Knights a slim 32 to 28 ad¬vantage to start the second half. Dylan Kor and Travis King would follow those baskets with baskets of their own to extend the string of points to eight, as the lead was now eight points. Kor then decided that the game needed to be basically over. He would score seven straight points. When Peterson hit another basket at the half-way point of the second half the score was 45 to 33.
The Bluejays would nev¬er get any closer than nine points the rest of the game. Brett Peterson would col¬lect eight points in the last part of the game while Kor and Vercruysse each add¬ed four more points. The biggest lead of the game was 19 points late in the game when the score was 62 to 43.
Dylan Kor had a nice night of basketball as he lead the Knights in scor¬ing with 20 big ones. He would also collect seven rebounds and have three blocks in the game. The Knights had the rebound¬ing edge by a count of 33 to 25. Brett Peterson chimed in with 19 points, eight as¬sists and three steals. Brett Vercruysse also was a dou¬ble-digit scorer with 12 points. Vercruysse would score the first points of both halves for the team.
Both teams made about the same number of field goals but the difference in the scoring totals were the free throws. The Knights made 18 of 23 attempts while the Bluejays were four of seven at the line. Peterson and Kor were the “line” experts for the Knights, going seven of eight and five of six, re¬spectively.
The win moved the over¬all record to 10 wins and one loss while the confer¬ence record is still spot¬less in the loss column. This Friday, Jan. 20 is the matchup with MACCRAY. MACCRAY is one of the top two teams in the north half of the conference. The game is in Tyler. This will be a game a fan will NOT want to miss. On Saturday the Knights travel to SMSU to battle SWC, a team in the south half of the sec¬tion. SWC is ranked second in the class 1A polls. That game will follow the girls game with SWC. The boys will play about 2:30 p.m. (GO KNIGHTS)
Both the B Team and ninth grade were success¬ful in their attempts for wins on Thursday. The B Team, after trailing by three points at the half, won the game by a score of 42 to 36. Dylan DeRuyter scored 11 of his game-high 14 points in the first half to keep things close. Alex Schwing scored nine of his 12 points in the sec¬ond half to bring the team to victory. Both of these boys had three 3-point¬ers in the game. The ninth grade scored a 41 to 31 win. Brett Knudsen nailed three 3-pointers to lead the team with 17 points. Isaiah DeRuyter chipped in with 13 points. Jesse Jasper added four points.
BOXSCORES
RTR 24 39 63
CMCS 24 22 46
3pt FG FT Pts
Madsen 0 0 0/0 0
S.Vogt 0 0 0/0 0
K.Vogt 0 0 0/0 0
Peterson 0 6 11/8 19
King 0 3 1/3 7
Weets 0 0 0/0 0
Condelli 0 0 1/2 1
Dunblazier0 1 0/0 2
Kor 1 6 5/6 20
DeRuyter 0 0 0/0 0
Wabeke 0 1 2/2 4
Vercruysse0 5 2/2 12
TOTALS 1 21 18/23 63
