Photo by Jake McNeill Russell-Tyler-Ruthton guard Carson Gylling (10) drives into the paint during a boys basketball game against Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey in Tyler on Thursday night.

TYLER — In a game featuring two teams with high hopes of going far in the postseason, the Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Knights entertained the Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey Wolverines. The Wolverines are an experienced club, with ten seniors while RTR is trying to find the combination that works with a new lineup from last year’s State Championship. It was a tight first half, with both teams turning the ball over, but RTR built up a 23-12 lead. However, Mountain Lake had a balanced scoring attack, and at halftime, they held a 31-30 lead. The second half saw the Wolverines shooting the three-ball effectively and they were able to pull away and take the win by a score of 82-67.

RTR started the game strong, with a couple of early 3-pointers from Blake Christianson and Andrew Meyers but Mountain Lake countered with five long-range shots of their own. Carter Olson led the way, nailing two, while Grant Oakland, Alex Karschnik and Grant Regier each had one. Andrew Meyers and Carson Gylling kept the game close for RTR, each scoring 7 points in the half, and Drew Werkman added another 8. For Mountain Lake, Ashton Toll had two baskets and Chase Anacker had one, giving the Wolverines a slim 31-30 lead going into the locker room.

The second half saw Mountain Lake continue to be aggressive getting the ball up the court for several layups, but they also found success from 3-point land, draining seven more 3-pointers.

Werkman and Gylling kept their team close, scoring 13 and 10 points respectively. Andrew Meyers had a strong rebounding night for RTR, in addition to adding 6 second-half points, and Chase Christianson added 6 more. But the second half belonged to the Wolverines, with Oakland finishing his fine night with 20 points. Carter Olson totaled 10 in the half for his game total of 16 and Karschnik added another 15.

Mountain Lake Head Coach Shawn Nass said, “It was a really good game between two good teams. we wanted to come here and see how we would stack up in the conference. We knew that we would have two competitive ballgames with them, and that is what we wanted to see. We need to see these types of teams. We have a lot of seniors, and we need good competition to measure up against. RTR has a nice squad, and they did a lot of good things that took us away from what we wanted to do. Our big runs really helped us in both halves, and we played well.”

“We played a good game, but they had a lot of offensive rebounds,” Gylling said. “It really hurt us when we played good defense, and then gave up an offensive rebound. We started in zone, and they kind of shot us out of it, but we adjusted to a man defense and I thought we did a good job. They shot the ball well and that was the difference.”

RTR Head Coach Daren Gravley was proud of his team’s efforts, saying “We played hard and had a high energy level, but giving up offensive rebounds will kill you. We didn’t do a good job on the glass tonight, and that really hurt us with the second-chance opportunities we gave them. We played good defense, and then they got several offensive rebounds that led to some three-pointers. When you play good teams like Mountain Lake area, when you can’t rebound, you are going to get beat. They did a good job of moving the ball side to side, and they had twelve 3-pointers to our three. We didn’t have the coverage on the outside when we are trying to rebound, and they took advantage of that.”

Mountain Lake Area is now 7-1, and RTR falls to 5-4. RTR travels to Cottonwood to take on the Lakers on Saturday.