Knights collect 13th straight win over Vikings
‘In a pretty good position’

Photo by Samantha Davis. Russell-Tyler-Ruthton's Sean Griesse drives toward the lane in the first half against Minneota on Monday night in Tyler. Griesse finished with 11 points in the Knights' 73-39 win.
TYLER — The Russell-Tyler-Ruthton boys basketball team continues to pave a strong path for itself nearing the end of the regular season, and picked up its 13th consecutive win, 73-39, over Minneota Monday night. Colten Thomsen led the Knights with 20 points and seven rebounds.
RTR grabbed control of the game early on with its consistent shooting. Minneota had good looks and drew several charges on defense through the first half, however it wasn’t able to get into an offensive rhythm to stay within reach.
“One of the things that we talked about here is one, we can’t allow them [opposing team] to jump out on us, like [RTR] did tonight,” Minneota head coach Chad Johnston said. “Also, good in your face and man-to-man defense … We’re struggling on that end because we can’t score, and then down on this end, I don’t think our intensity was there on defense until about eight to 10 minutes in.”
With a 22-point halftime lead, the Knights’ cushioned lead set them up to cruise through the rest of the night.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Luke Schreurs said regarding the team’s 13th straight win. “We were playing some pretty tough teams right at the beginning of the season, but we’re doing pretty good right now.”
Along with Thomsen, three other Knights finished in double digits. Schreurs followed with 12 points, all of which came from four 3-pointers. Sean Griesse tallied 11 points, and Chase Christianson had another 11 with a team-high eight rebounds.
For Minneota, Lucas Rybinski led the way with a game-high 22 points, including a trio of 3-pointers. Kyson Arndt led with six rebounds.
RTR shot 67% from the field, making 22 of its 33 attempts. Minneota went 7 of 23, or 30% from the field.
RTR has not lost a game in a month since it fell by 10 points to tenth-ranked Hills-Beaver Creek. With now seven regular season games left, the Knights are in a contending spot to try and repeat last year’s Section 3A championship run.
“I think we are in a pretty good position, I think we can do a lot,” Schreurs said. “[We have to] keep being positive, playing positive and just keep doing what we’re doing.”
The two teams traded early baskets, but it wasn’t long for RTR to establish its footing and begin to take off. Once its first double-digit lead was obtained, the Knights made it hard for the Vikings to go on any run to catch up.
“I think just ramping everyone up, and we’re wanting to hit shots,” Schreurs said about how RTR tries to build up early leads. “Also, just staying positive throughout the game really sets up a good mood.”
Thomsen led the Knights with 15 first-half points, and Rybhinski had 11 for the Vikings.
Rybinski hit a baseline jumper for Minneota, and RTR’s Schreurs hit a 3-pointer to start the night.
Leo Hennen drilled in a 3 in response, yet Thomsen crashed to the basket on the next possession for RTR’s early 7-5 advantage.
The Vikings played a 2-3 zone on a few occasions, which was able to force a pair of turnovers.
“We played a boxed offense against 2-3 zones, and we’ve been working with that a lot during practice,” Schreurs said.
Gavin Schreurs collected a steal and made the fast break layup after a pair of Thomsen free throws as RTR jetted off on an 18-2 run to eclipse a 29-7 lead with 8:20 to go in the first half.
Rybinski drew a charge on defense, as did Tate Peterson and Easton Johnston throughout the half.
“We usually try to tell them [Minneota], ‘If we can get a couple charges, that might slow them [opposing team] down and change their aggressiveness,'” Johnston said. “I was extremely happy with the fact that we were able to take a few of those. We’ve got a few kids that have been good about it throughout the career. Tonight, we had other kids make the attempt. So again, I was happy about that.”
Luke Schreurs nailed back-to-back 3-pointers for the Knights to force Minneota to call a timeout.
Out of the reset, Tyler Wichmann collected a steal and hit a short jump shot to limit any Minneota momentum from starting up.
Wichmann followed that up with a 3 for his own, while Thomsen went in for a layup paired with another 3-pointer to give RTR its 29-7 lead.
Rybinski ended the Vikings’ scoring drought with a free throw, but Juhl Drake found an open pocket in the lane when dribbling the ball up, and drove right to the basket to keep the Knights’ crowd loud.
A 3-pointer from Rybinski cut the Minneota deficit to 20 points, 31-11, followed up with Johnston’s charge, but RTR continued to run the floor.
Griesse stole the ball and hit the fast break dunk, and the half ended with a Thomsen offensive rebound putback off a 3-point attempt from Wichmann to put RTR up 43-21 heading into the locker room.
Griesse and Jens Drake both finished with three steals as well.
The Vikings came into the second half with some energy, sparked by a forced turnover and Rybinkski 3-pointer. He continued to be Minneota’s primary playmaker through the rest of the night.
Johnston praised Rybinski for his effort and said he had a great game, and noted the team needs other offensive contributions to pair along with him.
But, RTR responded on a 16-7 run to build a 59-28 edge and began to break down Minneota’s offense.
The Knights forced a handful of turnovers and were able to capitalize off them up until the final buzzer, not allowing Minneota a chance to comeback.
The Vikings finished with 25 turnovers, to RTR’s 13.
“It’s a big thing [for us] to be intense when we are on defense,” Luke Schreurs said. “Just getting all of the loose balls and being aggressive.”
Both teams put their reserves in to get a few minutes of playing time toward the end as well.
“I thought for three quarters of the game, we played pretty decent defense,” Johnston said. “We just didn’t start that way, and their [RTR] defense kept us out.”
Minneota (7-11) has a quick turnaround and will return back to home court to host Tracy-Milroy-Balaton (15-4) today at 7:30 p.m.
RTR (17-2) will next host Murray-County-Central (11-7) at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.