Photo by Jake McNeill Russell-Tyler-Ruthton forward Drew Werkman (50) gets a Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda defender to bite on a fake in the post before going up with a shot in the second half of RTR’s 73-46 win in the second round of the Section 3A tournament’s South bracket Saturday afternoon in Worthington.

WORTHINGTON — The No. 1 Russell-Tyler-Ruthton boys basketball team steamrolled their way through ninth-seeded Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda behind Drew Werkman’s 24 points for a 73-46 win in the second round of the Section 3A tournament’s South bracket Saturday afternoon.

The Knights lost their first game of the season in their last matchup against Dawson-Boyd in the Camden Conference Championship, 72-70, but wasted no time hanging their heads as they entered the section playoffs. By Halftime, the Knights had scored 36 points, nearly as many as the Coyotes scored in the game.

Werkman also grabbed 17 rebounds in the game, making him one of two Knights to finish the game with a double-double. Aiden Wichmann scored 11 points and dished out 10 assists with three turnovers. He also grabbed a steal and six rebounds.

Hayden Gravley was the Knights’ second-leading scorer with 14 points, but his role to help the team’s defense was just as important. He finished the game with a pair of steals and a block.

“I thought we played really great defense today,” RTR head coach Daren Gravley said. “We threw a couple of different looks at them and we succeeded very well on the defensive end and we did a good job on the glass.”

Blake Christianson and Cody Wichmann rounded out RTR’s leading scorers, finishing with 13 and 8 points respectively. Cody Wichmann also logged a team-high three steals.

Russell-Tyler-Ruthton (25-1) will face Murray County Central in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 6 p.m. The playoff matchup will mark the second time the two teams have met this season, with RTR taking the previous matchup by a score of 67-40 in Slayton on Jan. 16.

“Momentum always plays a factor, but at the end of the day, it’s just on the kids staying focused and locked in and working on defense,” coach Gravley said on the team’s approach to the quarterfinals. “It’s just staying focused and understanding what our role is and continuing to do our jobs and trusting each other.”