Photo by Samantha Davis: Dawson-Boyd senior guard Gunner Liebl drives the lane against Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Monday night in Tyler. Liebl finished with a game-high 38 points in a 79-76 comeback victory.

TYLER — Two of the past three Class A state champions met to open the 2025-26 season with the reigning Dawson-Boyd boys basketball team visiting Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, 2023 title winners. This time around, Dawson-Boyd came away with a 79-76 comeback victory powered behind senior Gunner Liebl’s game-highs of 38 points, 12 rebounds and five assists.

Four different Knights finished in double-digits, led by Juhl Drake and Colten Thomsen’s 16 points each.

“It’s a good win, a win is always good. We have some stuff that we got to work on, and we got some stuff that we did well, and just try to build off that,” Liebl said. “We just have to keep getting better every day at practice. Showing up, putting in the work and see where that takes us.”

The Knights came out on fire with efficient perimeter shooting and extended to a double-digit lead in the opening minutes. Yet, the Blackjacks embarked on a late rally to cut into RTR’s lead to 47-43 at halftime, and cleaned up their early turnover struggles to help its comeback in the second.

“I was really proud with our effort and how hard the boys played. Trying to contain a player of the caliber of a Gunner Liebl for Dawson is challenging, and hats off to him and coach [Cory] Larson and his team. They’re a really good basketball team,” RTR head coach Daren Gravley said. “I felt like we were in control of the game for a fairly large portion, and then we just had a spell where we went cold from the floor and from the free-throw line. We just didn’t make shots. With that being said, proud of the effort. We’re not going to hang our heads over this one.”

The Knights finished with 12 3-pointers, but were ultimately outrebounded by the Blackjacks 40-29.

A Liebl steal and layup tied the game up 65-65 with around eight minutes to go, followed with a go-ahead driving layup off the left wing from Liebl to give Dawson-Boyd its first lead of the game. The Knights never got back on top.

The Blackjacks extended their lead following another Liebl basket and a layup from Jaxton Hastad, and continued to turn the dial up on the defensive end to fluster the Knights.

Dawson-Boyd finished with 27 defensive rebounds to RTR’s 18.

“We stepped into it. We got to get rebounds and stops on defense,” Liebl said regarding what the team spoke about at half time. “Then, we go finish it on the other end. Our defense leads to our offense.”

Another steal lead to a Hastad layup for a 73-65 edge, as both teams went into bonus and made a few trips to the charity stripe.

RTR made a habit to trap Liebl after crossing half court, to which Liebl would make a long pass across court on a handful of possessions as the Blackjacks would move the ball around before finding a cutter.

Dawson-Boyd eventually went up 77-70 with 1:35 to go after Liebl made a pair of free throws for his final points of the night.

“I was just trying to stay calm, because they’ll [teammates] probably react how I react, and just try to be a good leader out on the floor,” Liebl said of maintaining composure.

RTR’s Gavin Schreurs drained a 3-pointer with 45 seconds left, down 77-73, yet the Blackjacks sealed the win with a pair of offensive rebounds on the next possession to drain the clock down as Hastad sank two more free throws just before time expired.

“I felt like the younger guys a little bit, they were a little nervous to touch the ball, but it’s partially my fault. I got to get them under control and make good passes,” Liebl said of the team fixing turnovers. “But, in the second half, they played amazing. They came in with some big shots.”

Along with Liebl, Hastad finished with 18 points while Cale Tufto added another 10. Landon Malecek had 10 rebounds, as did Ace Larson with another nine boards.

For RTR, Schreurs finished with 15 points while Braden Nibbe had 11. Tyler Whichmann led the Knights with seven rebounds.

“Going forward, we understand what we can do and how hard we need to play against really quality basketball teams,” Gravley said. “On the possessions where we were able to get the ball out of Liebl’s hands, I felt like we did a much better job of creating some chaos, forcing some turnovers, and forcing a few other of their players to shoot the ball.”

RTR controlled the first half and started the game on a 10-2 run with the help of Schreurs’ fast break and-1, an offensive-putback from Thomsen and a 3-pointer from Drake off the left wing to force an early Dawson-Boyd timeout.

Both teams played man coverage with RTR running a frequent full-court press along with its balanced offensive-shooting effort.

Liebl had 8 of Dawson-Boyd’s first 15 points, and a game-high 24 at the end of the half. Schreurs and Lane Wichmann led the Knights with 11 and 5 points, respectively, in the first half.

A Schreurs’ reverse-layup off a feed from Drake gave the Knights a 10-point advantage, 27-17, which became 32-21 after a Lane Wichmann 3-pointer.

Dawson-Boyd began its rally with a Tufto fastbreak layup, along with a trio of Liebl free throws after being fouled at the perimeter to cut into a 37-34 deficit.

Tufto went up for another layup with 50 seconds to go in the half, followed by a Leibl 3 to tie the score 43-43 with 18 seconds on the clock.

RTR’s Lane Wichmann in return was fouled on a made 3-pointer and made the free throw to give the Knights the halftime edge.

Dawson-Boyd is coming off a stellar 30-3 season that led the Blackjacks to its first-ever state championship after dethroning Cherry 81-74.

Although Dawson-Boyd will now be playing with the graduating loss of 6-foot-8 Brayson Boike and 6-foot-7 Drew Hjelmeland, both of who are now playing on Brad Bigler’s Southwest Minnesota State University basketball team, the Blackjacks still have returning experience and will operate under the leadership of Liebl, who was named to the 2025 Class A All-Tournament team alongside Boike and Hjelmeland. Hastad and Carson Stratmoen were also significant contributors on the state team last season.

Stratmoen was not available for Monday’s game.

“We have a lot of new guys coming in without Boike and Hjelmeland, getting their first steps in the water at a varsity game,” Liebl said. “In the second half, they kind of matured a little bit. The nerves washed away, and they stepped up and played really well.”

RTR also graduated a core of seniors including Sean Griesse and Chase Christianson, but still return a senior-heavy experienced group this year with talent such as Schreuers, Tyler and Lane Wichmann and Thomsen.

“We expect to compete,” Gravley said. “We should be able to compete night in and night out with most teams.”

Dawson-Boyd (1-0) will stay on the road and next face MACCRAY on Friday at 7 p.m., with its home opener slated for Monday when hosting Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg at 7:30 p.m.

RTR (0-1) has a quick turnaround, and will host Heron Lake-Okabena-Fulda today with a 7:15 p.m. tipoff.