Photo by Jake McNeill Russell-Tyler-Ruthton’s Tatum Hess shoots midrange jump shot in the first half of the Knights’ 50-38 win over Faribault in the Borch’s Holiday Classic at Southwest Minnesota State University on Wednesday afternoon.

MARSHALL – The Russell-Tyler-Ruthton girls’ basketball team pulled away after a slow start for a 50-38 win over Faribault in the Borch’s Holiday Classic at Southwest Minnesota State Wednesday afternoon.

The first half of the game was a dogfight in which neither team could pull away. Faribault led at halftime, 23-21.

Early into the second half with the score tied at 27, however, the Knights put together an 8-0 run to take command of the game. They never looked back.

“We figured out defensively what we needed to do,” RTR head coach Chris Shaffer said. ” Right away, they just really buried us with their pick-and-roll game. It was getting a little frustrating because we had talked about it, they knew what was coming. Once we figured it out and once we started taking that away, we made it really hard for them to score.”

Ally Nelson was a huge part of the Knights’ second-half success. After being held scoreless in the first half, she put 11 points on the board for RTR in the second half, tying her with Lexi Schreurs for a team-high on the night.

Free throws were a struggle for RTR. While they had no problem getting to the line, finishing the night with 22 attempts, they made just 50%.

The RTR defense’s ability to close in on Faribault’s leading scorer made it tough for the Falcons to get anything going offensively. While Halle Rice scored 17 points for Faribault, she was held to 5 in the second half.

Only five Faribault players scored at all on the knight, one of whom scored 1 point and only Rice scored double figures.

Turnovers didn’t cost the Knights on Wednesday, but they made some unforced errors that could be a difference in closer games.

“We’ve got a really aggressive group of girls, so they always want to be aggressive and make things happen out there. We just got to shift gears, shift down a speed, take our time, and be a little bit more patient,” Shaffer said. “We were trying to force ourselves into spots where there just weren’t any openings. Trying to make passes where there wasn’t really enough room. Once we just shifted gears and said, ‘okay, let’s take our time,’ then we were able to find some open shots.”

Following the win, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton (6-1) will host Dawson-Boyd on Thursday, Jan. 5 at 7:30 p.m.