WORTHINGTON — In the opening round of the Section 3A South boys basketball tournament, the No. 3S Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Knights took on the No. 6S Red Rock Central Falcons. During the regular season, RTR had beaten RRC twice by comfortable margins. But as the old tournament saying goes, you can throw out the records when the playoffs start. RTR was quite aware of that, and they went to work early and built a 10-point lead at halftime. With some stellar defense and good inside play, RTR increased its lead steadily and withstood a late RRC rally for a hard-fought 73-62 victory.

The first half started out slowly for both teams, with cold shooting and turnovers. At the 10-minute mark, the score was 11-10 in favor of RTR. One of the Knights’ leading scorers, Chase Christianson, was also sent to the bench early due to foul trouble.

“Chase Christianson sprained his ankle on Thursday, and got in early foul trouble tonight. But we were able to survive and advance, that is all that matters now,” RTR head coach Daren Gravley said. “It was closer than it needed to be, and we talked about that. They have five seniors in their rotation, and we knew that they just weren’t going to roll over.”

Yet, RTR was able to get balanced scoring, sparked by Eli Determan coming in to replace Christianson and getting two quick steals that he converted into layups. The main man for RTR, however, was Drew Werkman. He nailed a 3-pointer to go along with six field goals inside for 15 first-half points. Carson Gylling had three field goals, and Blake Christianson and Andrew Meyers each had two field goals to give RTR a 38-28 halftime lead. For RRC, Jayden Lang had a strong game, scoring 11 points in the first half while Ashton Holmen added another 7.

The second half saw RTR force several turnovers that turned into points, and they were able to build a 61-36 lead with seven minutes remaining.

Still, RTR’s seniors never gave up. Isaac Simonson, Corey Arkell and Jayden Lang put together a 10-0 run and Henry Stavnes added another 3-pointer to cut RTR’s lead to 68-56.

“We knew it would be a good battle between Simonson and Werkman, two of the top post players in the conference,” RRC head coach Colby Pack said. “They went neck-and-neck, and their role players stepped up and made some shots for them.”

In that stretch, Simonson had 16 points and Lang added 8 points and Arkell had two baskets inside to bring the Falcons back.

The Knights’ balanced scoring kept their lead to double digits and they hung on for the victory.

Werkman had 8 second-half points, and Blake Christianson heated up with 9 points in the half, including three clutch free throws at the end of the game.

“They did a good job of executing their offense, and I think that our intensity level on defense fell down a little. But they did execute down the stretch,” Gravley said. “After the game, we talked about how we have to finish teams off, and the game isn’t over until the final horn. At this time of the year, we will take a win any way we can.”

The loss ended the Falcons’ season at 12-15. They graduate seven seniors in Simonson, Lang, Holmen, Arkell, Jake Jackson, Tyler Therkilsen, and Austin Senst.

Pack, a second-year head coach, was quite proud of the determination that his team showed, bouncing back from a huge deficit when they could have easily given up.

“This has been the story of our season, where we get down a little bit too much, then we fight back to try to catch up,” Pack said. “When you get down by 26 points and you are able to get it back to a 10-point game, that forced them to scramble a little bit. That is how our season went, but we had a never-quit attitude. It is unfortunate that we went through those stretches where we didn’t take care of the ball and didn’t make shots. We did get some stops on defense, but when you are playing a good team like RTR, we knew we had to execute better than we did. That is a credit to them. Right now, they are rolling on every cylinder, but our guys didn’t quit and I am very proud of our effort. We just fell a little bit short tonight.

“We have seven seniors, and we are going to miss them and the great contributions they made in my two years here. We are going to have to replace them, and that is a tough thing to do. It will be a challenge for us, but with Henry Stavnes contributing as an eighth-grader, and some talented sophomores, we look forward to the next three or four years.”

RTR now advances Thursday night to take on No. 2 Southwest Minnesota Christian, which took down Westbrook-Walnut Grove in the subsection quarterfinals on Saturday. The Knights have lost to Southwest Christian twice this season, so they are hoping that the third time is a charm. Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m. in Worthington.