Photo by Jake McNeill Minneota guard Max Rost shoots a layup during the second half of a boys basketball game against Russell-Tyler-Ruthton in Minneota on Friday night.

MINNEOTA — With its undefeated start to the season on the line, the Minneota boys basketball team turned up the energy in the second half to pull away for a 56-47 win over the reigning state champion Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Knights on Friday night.

“I realize the record says one thing but there’s no way in my mind that I went into this game like we were the favorite team. I’ve got too much respect for the program,” Minneota head coach Chad Johnston said of the Knights. “They’ve got obviously a lot of new faces running around, got a kid coming back off an injury and they’re just competitive and they’re athletic… I talked to the kids, people are expecting you to win ballgames like this. This to us was the next level of competition with the next tier of teams on our schedule, so it was a big win for us.”

Trailing by 37-35 in the second half, Max Rost jumped up as if going for a layup and instead dropped a game-tying dime into Sawyer DeSmet. Rost hit the go-ahead shot on the next possession and hit a corner 3-pointer on the possession after that. The buckets continued to flow whether it was on Rost contested layups or Ryan Dalager finding a way to get to the line.

The Minneota run stretched out to be a 12-0 run before Chase Christianson knocked down a 3-pointer to cut Minneota’s lead to 47-40. The 10-point lead Minneota held before the 3-pointer was the largest of either team in the game.

“The buckets just started going in,” Rost said of the late rally. “When we get started making them, we get in a rhythm and it kind of rolls. We all get confident and it channels everybody.”

Rost continued to hit tough shot after tough shot in the paint and, after finishing the first half with 7 points, led the game with 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting. He also shot 2-of-3 from beyond the arc and dished out a team-high four assists.

“I was just seeing him do what he does. That is, to me, what I expect out of him,” Johnston said of Rost’s performance. “He’s gotten better at his 3-point shooting this year, I think that’s something he focused on and he hit some buckets there… Last year, I think he went to the basket always thinking he had to score. Now he’s finding other people to contribute and that’s going to, in the long run, open things up for him.”

The game started out with both teams locked in defensively from the jump ball. RTR knocked the opening tip back to their side of the court but players from both teams immediately dived for the loose ball to force a second jump ball before either team had taken a single dribble. The hustle plays were a trademark of the game’s play throughout the matchup.

“I knew they were going to switch up their defense against us. A little concerned about their 1-3-1 [zone defensive scheme], which I thought did a nice job slowing us down. I expected a defensive battle,” Johnston said. “I don’t know if I expected what we got in the first half… might have been a little bit of jitters too. You’ve got a good crowd, man. It was a great atmosphere to play.”

Peyton Sheik got the Vikings on the board first and DeSmet knocked down a free throw on the following possession to give the Vikings a 3-0 lead but Blake Christianson tied up the game with a deep 3-pointer that just barely beat the shot clock. Rost answered with a 3-pointer of his own but a pair of shots from Elijah Determan and Chase Christianson put the Knights right back on top.

Minneota retook the lead on a Rost midrange shot and, after Minneota called a timeout following a Drew Werkman basket, Rost hit another layup through contact to put the Vikings up 12-11.

The teams continued to trade baskets until another 3-pointer from Chase Christianson put the Knights on top 16-15. Lincoln Jerzak tied the game at the free-throw line but Andrew Meyer knocked down a transition layup after a Blake Christianson steal and then hit a free throw on the next play to make the lead 19-16 in favor of the Knights.

RTR went on to score 7 unanswered points to develop a 23-16 lead, their largest of the night, and force a Minneota timeout. Meyer and Gylling each also had a pair of ferocious blocks on the defensive side of the run. Still, the Vikings battled back in the half’s waning minutes. Chase Christianson drew a charge that seemed to guarantee the Knights a two-possession lead going into the locker room but Minneota again got a quick stop and Lucas Rybinski drained a 3-point shot as time expired to make it a 1-point game at the half, 24-23.

“We knew they were going to be tough. They were obviously state champions last year and we knew we had to come back, fight just as hard, or fight even a little harder,” Rost said of the halftime message in the Minneota locker room.

Chase Christianson led the Knights with 7 points at the break and finished as the game’s second-leading scorer with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting. He was particularly effective from long range, where he shot 3-of-6. He and Rost were the only players that made multiple 3-pointers in the game. Yet, the rest of the RTR roster shot a combined 1-of-13 and both teams finished shooting 4-of-19 from beyond the arc.

Sawyer DeSmet had another big game in the low block for Minneota, grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds. He also accounted for six of the Vikings’ eight offensive rebounds. Still, RTR finished with a 43-31 advantage on the glass behind 13 rebounds apiece from Werkman and Chase Christianson.

“[DeSmet’s] just got to have confidence. That’s all we’ve been trying to instill in him is just confidence in what he can do. He’s big, he’s athletic, he’s physical, he’s got to be doing those things for us,” Johnston said. “He was frustrated at halftime. Missed some easy buckets, so he was kind of frustrated and his teammates looked at him and said, ‘We’re going to keep coming at you.’ They had confidence in him and obviously, he came up in the second half and hit a couple of shots.”

DeSmet finished as the game’s fourth-leading scorer with 9 points, 6 of which came in the second half, on 4-of-9 shooting. Ryan Dalager also scored 13 points for Minneota while shooting 9-of-9 from the charity stripe and Blake Christianson was the Knights’ second-leading scorer with 10 points.

Blake Christianson and Carson Gylling led the game with five assists each while Werkman added another four. Still, the Knights finished the night with just a 16-15 advantage in assists and turned the ball over 24 times to Minneota’s 11.

Leading the charge for the Vikings on the defensive end, Sheik stole the ball five times while Dalager stole it another four. DeSmet and Rost each had three steals, Lincoln Jerzak added another two, and RTR finished with a team total of six steals to Minneota’s 18.

Russell-Tyler-Ruthton falls to 3-3 after the loss. They’ll host a pair of home games on Wednesday and Thursday, first hosting Edgerton on Wednesday at 4 p.m. The time and opponent they’ll face for Thursday’s game are yet to be determined.

The Vikings improve to a perfect 7-0 with the win and will now head to Marshall for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday at Southwest Minnesota State University’s R/A Facility. The Vikings will take on Murray County Central on Friday at noon and Hills-Beaver Creek on Saturday at 11 a.m.