Photo by Brennen Rupp RTR’s Mya Christensen tries to get past a pair of Edgerton defenders during their game on Monday. The Knights defeated the Flying Dutchmen 53-34.

TYLER – The Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Knights outscored Edgerton 29-15 in the second half of their game on Monday to come away with a 53-34 victory. The strong second half was set up by a 9-0 RTR run to close out the first half.

“We took care of the boards and we were much more aggressive on defense,” RTR coach Steve Krause said. “We played that way the whole second half. We took it to them. I was very happy with our performance in the second half and the final three minutes of the first half.”

The Knights opened up the game by taking a 6-2 lead. Edgerton responded with a 6-0 run to take an 8-6 lead. A Jonni Biren basket tied the game back up at 8-8 to put an end to Edgerton’s run.

A Jackie Dressen basket put RTR up 10-8, but Edgerton answered with another 6-0 run to take a 14-10 lead.

Shawna Thomsen converted a 3-point play to cut Edgerton’s lead to 16-14. With the Knights trailing 19-15, Mya Christensen converted a 3-point play of her own to cut the lead to 19-18. Christensen’s basket started a 9-0 run for the Knights to close out the half. A Brooke Thomsen putback layup at the buzzer gave the Knights a 24-19 lead at the half to cap off the run.

Edgerton opened the scoring in the second half to cut the lead to 24-21 before RTR went on a 6-0 run to open up a 30-21 lead.

RTR then went on a 13-1 run to open up a 43-24 lead with 7:23 left in the game. With a comfortable lead the Knights were able to empty the bench to close out the game.

The Knights had five players score five or more points. Brooke Thomsen finished the game with 10 points, nine rebounds and three steals. Maddy Muenchow scored 10 points. Shawna Thomsen scored nine points. Christensen scored seven points and grabbed six rebounds.

“I feel real comfortable going nine deep,” Krause said. “I think they only played seven, I think that was to our advantage. They got tired there in the second half. We have starters, but we got nine people and they are so equal right now. I’m real happy with what’s come off our bench.”

With the win the Knights extended their winning streak to five games, and are currently 7-7 overall. They’ll look to make it six straight wins on Thursday against Lac qui Parle Valley.

Edgerton 19 15-34

RTR 24 29-53

SCORING: RTR (B. Thomsen 10; Muenchow 10; S. Thomsen 9; Christensen 7; Dressen 5).

REBOUNDING: RTR (B. Thomsen 9; Christensen 6).

ASSISTS: RTR (Biren 3).

STEALS: RTR (B. Thomsen 3).