Photo by Jake McNeill: Russell-Tyler-Ruthton guard Makayla Hesse works her way along the baseline during the second half of a prep girls basketball game against Ortonville, Tuesday in Marshall.

MARSHALL — The aggressive press of the Russell-Tyler-Ruthton girls basketball team set the tone in the Knights’ non-conference matchup against Ortonville at the Marshall Holiday Tournament on Tuesday. The Knights jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, coasting to a 79-15 win.

“[The girls] had some goals that they needed to achieve and they met them, and one of those goals was to score points,” RTR head coach Steven Hesse said. “Yesterday [against Lac qui Parle Valley], we didn’t really score points. We played really good defense… they didn’t score until six minutes left in the second half. Now you’ve got to challenge them today and say, ‘Let’s go out and score, our defense needs to lead to offense.'”

RTR picked up a 48-36 win over LQPV in the first day of the Holiday Tournament on Monday, scoring 33 first-half points and holding on in the second half after its defense limited the Eagles to 11 points after the break.

It took the Knights just five minutes to build their lead over Ortonville up to double digits at 15-5. They went on to lead by more than 40 points in the first half.

Makayla Hesse and Paisley Thooft led a balanced scoring effort for the Knights, with five RTR players reaching double figures. Hesse and Thooft each scored 14 points in the game, coming on 8 first-half points from Hesse and 6 from Thooft. Ava Guida and Jilian Shoenfeld each scored another 12 points while Brezlyn Buchert added another 11.

Ava Karbo scored 8 first-half points for the Knights to set the tone in the post early, finishing with 9, while Serreyn chipped in another 6. In total, 10 different Knights found the bottom of the net on the day.

“Good rotation, ball reversals are key in any offense so they did a good job of that,” coach Hesse said. “They started off a little bit slow, a little bit cautious, and then as the game started, they got into attack mode.”

Even when the shots weren’t falling, RTR proved itself to have a good feel for the game. The Knights played selflessly throughout the night, consistently swinging the ball and making the extra pass to find open teammates for good looks in the post or behind the arc.

RTR held the Trojans scoreless for over 10 minutes after Ortonville scored its 5th point. The defensive dominance came from the Knights’ consistent effort and hustle as they consistently tipped passes to force turnovers before Ortonville could cross halfcourt.

As the first half progressed, the Knights’ defense found more and more success in their efforts to turn defense into offense. They brought their lead to 20 points halfway through the half, cracking a 30-point cushion four minutes later and bringing it up to 40 on a pair of Serreyn free throws.

Hesse followed up Serreyn’s free throws with a steal and passed it up to Buchert for a transition layup, and the RTR defense forced a 5-second violation on the ensuing inbound to set up a Serreyn layup to bring the Knights’ edge to 51-6 heading into the locker room. RTR closed the half on a 36-1 run.

Ortonville never cut into the RTR lead, with the Knights continuing to build a cushion as they worked in their reserves for the second half.

RTR improves to 6-4 on the season and next heads to Cottonwood to take on Lakeview (7-2) on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. It will be a game of two teams with similar styles as both the Knights and Lakers pride themselves on their press defense.

“We’ve just got to keep good ball pressure. You can’t give them room; if they can move the ball around, you’re in trouble,” coach Hesse said of his team’s defense. “It doesn’t make any difference if they’re driving the lanes or passing to get open, we’ve just got to keep ball pressure up on them all the time.”