Photo by Sam Thiel RTR’s Skylar Borresen (31) and McKenzie Schreurs (3) guard a HLO/Fulda opponent during their game on Saturday. The Knights defeated the Coyotes 63-29.

MARSHALL — The Russell-Tyler-Ruthton girls basketball team has gained some momentum as they approach the end of the regular season. Winning two of their past three games, the Knights looked to keep things rolling against Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda on Saturday. Thanks to a strong defensive performance, RTR quickly built a lead and never looked back as it took down the Coyotes 63-29 at the R/A Facility on the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University.

RTR coach Steve Krause said he was pleased with how they performed as a group throughout the night.

“Everybody played well, we did some things very well,” Krause said. “I’m very happy with it.”

The Knights jumped out of the starting gates right away, building an 11-2 lead in the opening minutes before a free throw from HLO/Fulda stopped nearly a five-minute scoreless streak for the Coyotes. RTR continued to increase its advantage, as an Allie Christianson jumper gave the Knights a double-digit lead before Lexi Schreurs got a layup to go to make it 26-9 with under five minutes left in the first half. Both teams then traded points for the remainder of the frame to give RTR a 31-11 lead going into the locker rooms.

The second half began in similar fashion, this time with the Knights going on a 10-0 run to push their lead to 30 before a 3-pointer from Shawna Thomsen made it 50-18 with 10:39 left. From there, RTR continued to control the tempo on both ends of the floor, ultimately earning the 63-29 victory.

Ashley Owen led the way for the Knights with 19 points while Kalleigh Carr added 11 and Faith Thomsen had 10. Owen also led in rebounds with 12 while Faith Thomsen led in assists with three.

Krause said although they did a lot of good things in the first half, shooting the ball effectively wasn’t one of them, but added they did a better job of creating offense in the second half.

“The first half we had a lot of things working, but putting it in the basket wasn’t because we didn’t shoot very well at all in the first half,” Krause said. “The second half we shot much better; sometimes you play well and you don’t shoot well and then you don’t look so good, but I thought we played well, we just didn’t put in the basket in the first half.”

Defensively, the Knights came up with 22 steals, led by Carr’s six. Krause said they were able to match up with HLO/Fulda’s lineup pretty well and did a nice job of capitalizing on their press.

“Size-wise, they were as big as us and we said that we had to get something out of our presses and traps and I think we did a nice job of that,” Krause said. “We got some steals and they had quite a few turnovers and we only had four turnovers at halftime, which was big.”

RTR (6-17) will face Lakeview today at 7:15 p.m. Krause said their biggest takeaway will be continuing to take things game-by-game and trying to improve each day.

“We just have to take things one game at a time,” Krause said. “It was good for us to get on this floor, but there are always things we need to work on to get better.”

RTR 63, HLO/Fulda 29

RTR 31 32 — 63

HLO/Fulda 11 18 — 29

Scoring: RTR (Owen 19; Carr 11; F. Thomsen 10; Christianson 8; S. Thomsen, L. Schreurs 5; M. Schreurs, Borresen 2; Muenchow 1).

Rebounds: RTR 46 (Owen 12; F. Thomsen 6; M. Schreurs 5).

Assists: RTR 14 (F. Thomsen 3; Muenchow, Wendland 2).

Steals: RTR 22 (Carr 6; F. Thomsen 5).

Blocks: RTR none.