Photo by Brennen Rupp RTR’s Cooper Hansen goes up for a shot against a CMCS defender in the Section 3A North Championship game Saturday at SMSU. RTR fell 57-56.

MARSHALL – The Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Knights upset bid came up just short against the Central Minnesota Christian School Bluejays in the Section 3A North Championship game on Saturday.

With 7.9 seconds left in the game, the Knights came out of a timeout with possession of the ball and trailing 57-56. RTR’s Cooper Hansen drove the lane and got off a heavily contested shot that failed to find the bottom of the net. The Bluejays grabbed the rebound with 0.8 seconds left to secure a hard earned 57-56 victory against the young Knights squad.

“We had a look at the end to win, and it just didn’t go down,” RTR coach Ted Kern said. “Central Minnesota Christians’ seniors answered the bell when they needed the big shots.”

One of those big shots came from senior guard Matthew Van Eps. With the game tied at 55 and 1:11 left in the game, the Bluejays came out of a timeout with possession of the ball and looking for the go-ahead bucket. RTR’s Chris Muecke jumped the passing lane and appeared to be on his way to giving the Knights a two-point lead before a CMCS player denied him at the rim.

Following the block, Van Eps hit a baseline jumper with 22.1 seconds left to give CMCS a 57-55 lead. Coming out of an RTR timeout, Carter Hansen drove the lane and was fouled on a shot attempt. Hansen knocked down the first one to trim CMCS’ lead to 57-56. His second free throw attempt missed, but RTR’s Jonah Johnson came down with his seventh rebound of the game to give RTR one last shot.

Unfortunately for the Knights, Cooper Hansen’s game-winning shot attempt failed to go down and CMCS defeated RTR for the third time this season to advance to the Section 3A championship game.

Kern said his team gave the Bluejays everything they could handle.

“We did a good job of getting after things defensively and keeping them off the offensive glass,” Kern said. “We really executed our offense well. We had good possessions and limited our turnovers.”

The first half was much like the second half, a back-and-forth affair. After the Knights took a 14-13 lead, the Bluejays answered by going on a 8-0 run to open up a 21-14 lead. It appeared the game was starting to slip away from the Knights. Coming out of timeout the Knights answered by going on a mini 5-0 run to trim the lead to 21-19.

“We slowed ourselves down offensively,” Kern said. “We rushed a couple of shots during that stretch. We did a good job of getting a nice possession out of a timeout to stop the bleeding.”

With the Knights trailing 37-29 in the second half, and in desperate need of a boost, the Hansen twins (Cooper and Carter) rose to the challenge. The Hansen’s scored 14 straight points for the Knights to help keep the Knights within striking distance as they closed the gap to 47-43.

“They did a very nice job of getting in the paint and finishing through contact,” Kern said. “It’s tournament time and they did a nice job of playing through that physicality.”

The second-half performance gave a glimpse of what could be in store for the young Knights squad next season. They’ll be losing two seniors, but will return their top six scorers.

Cooper Hansen finished the game with 19 points. Carter Hansen reached double figures with 10 points and dished out four assists. Johnson scored eight points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. Garrett Kern chipped in with eight points.

RTR finishes its season with a 23-6 record.

SCORING: RTR (Cooper Hansen 19; Carter Hansen 10; Johnson 8; Kern 8; Muecke 5)

3-POINT FG: RTR 5 (Kern, Cooper Hansen 2; Muecke 1)

REBONDS: RTR 20 (Johnson 7; Kirk 4).

ASSISTS: RTR 10 (Carter 4; Johnson 3).

STEALS: RTR 6 (Johnson, Kirk 2; Two with 1)

BLOCKS: RTR 3

TURNOVERS: RTR 4