MINNEAPOLIS — The Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Knights opened the Class A state boys basketball tournament against a familiar foe on Thursday morning. RTR and Cherry met in last year’s state semifinals, with the top-seeded Knights coming away with a win en route to a state championship. This time around, however, the Knights were the No. 1 seed and showed exactly why, pulling away late in the first half and never looking back as they claimed a 78-46 victory.

“It feels good [to get revenge for last year’s loss],” Cherry head coach Jordan Christianson said. “That’s [RTR] a well-coached team. That’s a physical team. The loss, I mean, we had to move on and get better from it but it still stings at times thinking about it, so it was good to come out, perform and get them back from last year.”

“It’s different than a year ago, both ways,” RTR head coach Daren Gravley said. “I’m proud of these guys for stepping up and stepping into roles that were vacated from last year’s team and taking ownership of this team… I’m just proud of them for stepping out of the shadow from that team and getting through a tough section and coming together as a group to get back here.”

Blake Christianson and Isaiah Asuma traded baskets to start the game and Noah Sunquist knocked down a free throw and a layup on consecutive trips down the court. Chase Christianson answered with a 3-pointer and, after another Sunquist layup, a Drew Werkman free throw and midrange jumper from Christianson gave the Knights their first lead of the game, 8-7, with 13:47 to play.

“Just trusting our defense, trusting each other. We were in our gaps helping each other out,” Werkman said of the Knights’ early defensive success. “I think the fatigue factor set in in that second half and that’s what kind of allowed them to pull away.”

It didn’t take Cherry long to snap back into form as the No. 1 team in class A. Isaac Asuma took the lead back for the Tigers with a fastbreak layup and a free throw just five seconds later. The play sparked a 10-0 run for the Tigers over two-and-a-half minutes. Christianson ended the drought with a layup but Isaac Asuma came right back with a layup to give the Tigers their first double-digit lead of the day.

Fastbreak points were a difference-maker for the Tigers in the game. Nearly any time Cherry came down with a defensive rebound, the rebounder was able to find a streaking teammate with an outlet pass for an easy bucket. Cherry finished the game with a 32-5 advantage in fast break points and their 14 steals gave them a 26-4 advantage in points off turnovers.

“We’re like a family. We’re always with each other. We’re brothers,” Isaiah Asuma said of the Tigers’ ability to be selfless with the ball. “I feel like we always know where each other is going to be. We’ve got that team chemistry. We’re always going to be there and we’re always going to play team ball.”

Isaac, Noah and Isaiah Asuma each had three steals for the Tigers, as did Carson Brown. RTR finished with three steals as a team, though Werkman did make a defensive impact with a pair of blocks in the game.

RTR held the Tigers scoreless for four minutes after Asuma’s layup but the Cherry defense held the Knights to just a pair of layups by Werkman and Chase Christianson to make the score 21-15 with 7:16 to play.

Noah Asuma got Cherry back on the board, cashing in a 3-pointer off the feed from Brown. After both teams went scoreless for nearly a minute, Cherry’s offense locked in and started to gap the Knights. The Tigers scored 16 points over a stretch of just three minutes while limiting RTR to just one 3-pointer from Blake Christianson, bringing their lead to 42-18 with 3:22 left in the first half.

“We always say that they give us their best punch in the first eight minutes of the game. After that, that’s when we go,” Isaac Asuma said. “That’s our time to blow it up with our transition and lock in defensively. That’s how we’ve been playing all season, now we know what to do.”

Isaiah Asuma led all scorers with 26 points on 11 of 13 shooting from the field. Far from the only Tiger with a hot hand on the night, Isaac Asuma added another 20 points on 9 of 16 shooting while Sundquist finished with 16 points on 5 of 10 from the field.

RTR was able to keep pace in the waning minutes of the first half, but the damage was done and Cherry carried a 46-24 advantage into the locker room for halftime.

While the Knights weren’t able to keep pace, Blake Christianson was aggressive and effective in getting to the hole early on. He finished the first half with 9 points to lead RTR at the break and finished with a team-high 15 points. Chase Christianson was the only other Knight to crack double figures, finishing with 11 points on 5 of 10 shooting from the field. Blake Christianson attributed his early scoring success to Cherry’s focus on limiting Werkman.

“They’re great. They’re tough. They swarm you if you get in the post, so it’s tough when they knock down more shots than us,” Blake Christianson said.

RTR finished the game with an 11-8 offensive rebounding advantage, giving them 8 second-chance points to Cherry’s 5. Still, Cherry finished with a 38-34 overall rebounding advantage.

Werkman led RTR on the glass with 11 total rebounds and four offensive rebounds. No other Knights finished with five or more total boards.

Isaac Asuma led Cherry with 13 total rebounds while Brown finished with six total rebounds and three offensive boards.

Carson Gylling scored the last point of the first half with a free throw but Cherry continued to surge forward to start the second. The Tigers scored 10 unanswered points in the first 2:19 of the second half to jump out to a 56-24 lead. Steals from Brown and Noah and Isaiah Asuma set up 6 of those points.

Chase Christianson scored RTR’s first points of the second half with a layup off an assist from Werkman but Cherry again came back with an 11-3 run. The Knights were never able to come back within 20 points of the Tigers.

Brown dished out a game-high seven assists for the Tigers while Blake Christianson led RTR with four, tying Cherry’s Isaac and Isaiah Asuma.

The Knights made a mass substitution with under 5:45 remaining to take out all of their starters while trailing 43-75. The Tigers responded with an emphatic dunk by Isaac Asuma on the next play and nearly another athletic alley-oop to Sunquist on the next. An RTR foul prevented the basket and the Tigers took out their starters as Sundquist went to the line for his free throws, making 1 of 2.

Cherry put together a 52-22 advantage in points in the paint. They also shot 64% on 2-point attempts compared to 32% for RTR.

Cherry returned all seven players that competed in last year’s state tournament game against RTR while the Knights returned just two, Drew Werkman and Blake Christianson. Among the Tigers’ returners was senior Isaac Asuma, a University of Minnesota basketball commit and one of six seniors on the roster.

“There’s a little bit more motivation [to get a championship],” Asuma said of playing in the tournament for the third time. “It’s my last go-around, my last time to win. Also, it’s just a great experience to be down here. The last two years were just learning years. This year we’ve got to go get it done.”

With the loss, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton (23-8) falls to the consolation bracket with the loss. They’ll face Red Rock Conference foe No. 4 Mountain Lake Area-Comfrey in the consolation bracket at Concordia University on Friday at 10 a.m. with the hope of advancing to the fifth-place game on Saturday morning.

“We’re seniors. We don’t want to be done yet,” Blake Christianson said. “We’ve still got games to play. Two more, that’s all we’ve got left.”

Russell-Tyler-Ruthton split its regular-season matchups against MLAC. The Wolverines came out on top in the first matchup on Jan. 4, 82-67, but RTR got its revenge with an 82-78 win in Mountain Lake on Feb. 8.

Cherry improves to 29-2 with the win and will face No. 5 Nevis at Williams Arena on Friday at noon for the Class A semifinals.