Photo by Chris Drummond RTR’s Drew Werkman (50) surveys the floor during their Section 3A tournament game against WWG on Saturday. RTR defeated WWG 64-41.

MARSHALL — The No. 2S Russell-Tyler-Ruthton and No. 5S Westbrook-Walnut Grove boys basketball teams entered their matchup on Saturday looking to maintain their momentum, with RTR taking out No. 3S Tracy-Milroy-Balaton and WWG stunning top-seeded Southwest Minnesota Christian in the previous round. With a trip to the Section 3A championship game on the line, both teams knew things weren’t going to come easy.

It was tight early on, but a strong push in the second half by RTR helped them earn a 64-41 victory in the R/A Facility on the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University and advance to the section championship game for the first time since the 2017-18 season.

It was the first meeting between the two teams this season and the Knights came out hot, with Aiden Wichmann scoring the first eight points of the game, forcing a Chargers timeout. From there it was a back-and-forth affair with the Chargers making a defensive switch late in the opening half, going from man defense to zone, confusing the Knights and making it difficult for them on offense. However, the Knights still led by nine at halftime, 26-17.

After a quick scoring burst by the Chargers drew the deficit to four at 32-28 early in the second half, the Knights would let them get no closer and outscored the Chargers for the rest of the game 32-13. The Knights defense was absolutely stout, forcing turnovers and converting those turnovers into easy transition baskets. Aiden Wichmann had a game-high 25 points and RTR head coach Daren Gravley assessed his team’s performance in Saturday’s game.

“I think the best thing that we did was our defensive pressure,” Gravley said. “We talked about finding their shooters and just contesting shots. We also cleaned up the glass very well.”

Gravely also advocated about Wichmann’s performance as well.

“Aiden did a great job of taking what the defense gave him,” Gravley said. “He did a great job of making good decisions and credit to the entire team for playing good defense to start the game.”

After earning a huge upset win over SWC, WWG couldn’t sustain that momentum for this game. WWG head coach Derrick Jenniges spoke about the team’s performance and impact of the team’s three seniors (Orion Knakmuhs, Austin Parker and Cole VanDeWiele) on the team.

“I was really proud of how we survived the first half to be down by only nine also I was really proud of our effort, just couldn’t make enough shots,” Jenniges said. “This is the fourth straight year these seniors have played in the sub-section final. They’ve been great leaders and I’m just proud of the effort they put forth bringing their community together.”

Kole Curry for the Chargers led the team in scoring with 10 points. Final game stats were not available at press time.

The Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Knights will face off against the No. 1N Central Minnesota Christian Bluejays for the Section 3A championship next Thursday at 5 p.m. at SMSU.

RTR 64, WWG 41

WWG 17 24 – 41

RTR 26 38 – 64