Dec 28, 2024
Photo by Jake McNeill: Russell-Tyler-Ruthton guard Makayla Hesse drives toward the basket during the first half of a prep girls basketball game at the Holiday CLassic at Southwest Minnesota State University on Saturday.
MARSHALL — After winning each of its first games to start the season, the Russell-Tyler-Ruthton girls basketball team’s woes continued as it dropped below .500 on Saturday. The Knights fell into an early hole against Central Minnesota Christian at the Holiday Classic at Southwest Minnesota State University and never recovered, dropping 74-37 for their fifth consecutive loss.
“We’ll push through… Those are five losses, but when they’re five losses by 5 points, it’s not as big of a game for us as like this but CMCS for us is a tough matchup so they’ll bounce back fine,” RTR head coach Steven Hesse said. “On this, I look to have a good competitive game against Edgerton and for the rest of the season. We’re learning things all the time, so we’ve got good things to look forward to.”
CMC seized all momentum out of the gate, going on a 9-0 run before Laken Baartman scored the Knights’ first points of the game at the free-throw line three minutes into the game. The Bluejays answered with another 10 unanswered points when RTR called a timeout trailing 19-2 with 11 minutes remaining in the half.
Both teams went scoreless for three minutes after the timeout before CMC ended the drought with a bucket.
“We forced some shots in there. We didn’t let them just come to us like normal, but that’s because we weren’t penetrating,” coach Hesse said. “If we’re not penetrating, we’re not kicking out and getting those open-hand catch-and-shoots… It’s easy to do in practice, but when you get in a game against a tough defense like this who loves to play tough man-to-man, [it’s difficult].”
After nearly seven scoreless minutes for the Knights following Baartman’s free throws, Makayla Hesse knocked down a pair from the charity stripe to get RTR back on the board. Ava Karbo then scored RTR’s first field goal of the game with a putback layup, earning and converting a free throw with 6:48 to play in the half and the Knights trailing 21-7.
RTR wasn’t selfish with the ball and consistently passed around the perimeter early. Yet, CMC’s 2-3 zone prevented the Knights — a team that largely relies on interior scoring — from working the ball into the paint.
“We just didn’t look for penetrating. We sat back and we were content,” coach Hesse said. “They put good pressure on us and we were content trying to move it around the perimeter and not necessarily moving it into our fives. We’ve got to look at that a little bit better.”
Baartman finished the game as the Knights’ leading scorer with 11 points on 21 attempts while Hesse added another 9 points on 10 attempts. On the boards, Dilyn Werkman led the team with eight rebounds and Ava Karbo added another five. Adalia Matzner had the lone block of the game.
The Bluejays increased their lead to as many as 28 points in the half, but RTR rallied late. CMC had the ball in the final 30 seconds with no shot clock but left time on the game clock after missing the shot. RTR raced down the court and Baartman hit the fastbreak layup to cut CMC’s lead to 39-18 at halftime.
With under seven minutes remaining, CMC triggered the running clock by extending its lead to 66-31. They led by as many as 39 points from there.
With the loss, RTR falls to 4-5 on the season. The Knights will aim to get back into a rhythm when they travel to face Edgerton (5-4) on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
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