Photo by Chris Drummond: Russell-Tyler-Ruthton's Aiden Wichmann (14) drives down the lane through traffic and scores a layup in the Knights' 80-62 win over Nevis in the Class A quarterfinals at Williams Arena Wednesday morning.

MINNEAPOLIS — The Russell Tyler Ruthton Knights boys basketball team showed why they were the No. 1 team in Class A by dominating the Nevis Tigers 80-62 at the Williams Arena on Wednesday morning

The Knights came out aggressive, especially on defense. RTR forced turnovers on six of the Tigers’ first eight possessions. By halftime, Nevis had turned the ball over nine times while shooting 29% from the field.

“To start the game out, I thought we had really good focus and high-level energy,” RTR head coach Darren Gravley said. “Everyone was locked in. We got stops and rebounded the ball. It was important to get into transition and get some easy buckets. Our defensive energy was at a high level for the entire game. We had a few turnovers but when you play fast, that’s going to happen from time to time.”

Despite Nevis’ early turnovers, the Tigers kept the game close midway through the first half due to their ability to get to the free-throw line. Nevis held a 21-6 advantage in free throw attempts in the first half but only knocked down 11.

The Knights got rolling late in the first half with Drew Werkman and Hayden Gravely combining for 21 points before the break, more than the Tigers’ team total of 19.

RTR dominated the rebounding battle despite their size disadvantage. They began to run the Tigers off the court, doubling them up 38-19 at halftime.

“It is a big deal when you can stretch a 6-point lead up to 19 points, “ Gravley said. “It all starts with our defense with rebounding the ball and taking care of it. It was nice to see our perimeter shots go down as well.”

The only negative for the Knights in the first half was foul trouble. Werkman was substituted out late in the first half after picking up his third foul.

“First half I got into a little bit of foul trouble,” Werkman said. “It is amazing to have teammates to pick me up, it helps a lot. We take pride in our defense. We want to get stops, rebound and push it back to their end of the court. We just need to keep playing how we’ve been. Continue to get stops on defense, rebound and push the ball.”

Werkman finished the game with 19 points, including his 1,000th career point, and seven rebounds.

The opening of the second half saw Cody Wichmann hit two 3-pointers in the first couple of minutes extending RTR’s lead to 21 points, 46-25. He went on to knock down three and score 11 points.

Despite the Tigers outscoring the Knights 43-42 after halftime, the Knights’ first-half lead allowed them to hold on for a convincing win.

“We got it rolling in transition today which got us started offensively,” Aiden Wichmann said. “We take pride in our defense and it ignites our offense, so when we have that clicking, things come pretty easy to us. I go with the flow of the game and try to do what the team needs. Coach tells me don’t force it and let the game come to me, that’s what I try to do. We had a great week of practice and watched a lot of film this week and prepared well. Every team we play, we’re going to try to outwork them and we’re going to continue to take one game at a time.”

Wichmann scored 16 of his game-high 24 points in the second half and grabbed nine rebounds with four assists in the contest.

Camden Hansen had a team-high nine rebounds and had 6 points. Hayden Gravely had 10 points.

The Knights’ impressive win was a rematch of last year’s Class A consolation semifinal where RTR defeated Nevis 74-71.

Russell-Tyler-Ruthton (28-1) will now face No. 4 Cherry High School at the Target Center in the Class A semifinals on Friday at noon.