Photo by Jake McNeill: Russell-Tyler-Ruthton guard Avery Schreurs (15) defends Dawson-Boyd’s Laura Schreier during the first half of a prep girls basketball game in Tyler on Thursday night. Schreurs finished as the Knights’ leading scorer in a 50-38 season-opener victory.

TYLER — The Russell-Tyler-Ruthton girls basketball started their season strong on Thursday night when it hosted Dawson-Boyd for its season opener. After a competitive first half, the Knights surged ahead in the second to claim a 50-38 win.

RTR head coach Steven Hesse, in his second year with the team after coaching the Knights to a 13-14 record, said that he felt Dawson-Boyd had a scrappy team but that RTR’s depth allowed his team to claim the win.

“They’ve got a nice team with some ball-handling, but I think honestly the fact that we just kept coming after them with 12 players [made the difference after halftime],” Hesse said. “We tried to keep our legs as fresh as we could on the court at all times. We kept rotating, rotating, rotating and we’re learning.”

The Knights’ tenacious defense resulted in plenty of fastbreak opportunities. Whether it was steals or forcing jump balls, RTR was consistently able to make the hustle plays.

Coming out of halftime, RTR trailed 25-23. Claire Stratmoen gave the Blackjacks a hot start to the second half with an early 3-pointer but RTR locked in from there. Brezlyn Buchert hit a layup to make it a 1-point game with 14 minutes remaining, prompting a Dawson-Boyd timeout, and RTR’s defense came up with a stop before Makayla Hesse hit a layup through contact to give her team a 29-28 lead.

Buchert kept the ball rolling with consecutive baskets to extend the lead up to 5 points before Swedzinski converted an and-1 to stop the bleeding with 10:30 to play, her team trailing 33-31. Still, Dawson-Boyd never reclaimed the lead.

Swedzinski led Dawson-Boyd in scoring with 11 points on the night while Claire Stratmoen added another 10. Each of the two converted a pair of 3-pointers in the game while Hjelmeland and Allison Estling also contributed offensively with 7 and 8 points.

Despite being undersized, Stratmoen was aggressive on the boards. Standing at 5-foot-3, her 7 total rebounds trailed only Estling’s 15. Estling’s seven offensive rebounds were also a game-high. The two also led Dason-Boyd defensively with four steals apiece.

Dilyn Werkman banked in a 3-pointer with under eight minutes to play and an Addisyn Serryn steal set up a Schreurs layup for a 39-31 RTR lead, the largest of the game. Serryn and Dawson-Boyd’s Laura Schreier were injured in a collision on the play, with the game being paused as both players were seen to by the trainers. Neither player returned to the game.

Hjelmeland converted a midrange jumper through the foul on the first possession after the stoppage but both offenses slowed from there, going scoreless for two minutes.  

In transition a few moments later, Buchert sent a perfectly placed pass from near halfcourt to Schreurs in the paint for a layup to give RTR a double-digit lead with three minutes remaining. RTR maintained that lead to the final buzzer to start the season 1-0.

Offensively, RTR distributed the workload well. Schreurs and Buchert led the team with 11 and 10 points respectively while Laken Baartman added another 8. Adelia Matzner and Ava Karbo each also added 6 points.

RTR held a significant height advantage over Dawson-Boyd. Starters Matzner, Werkman and Guida stand at 6-foot-flat, 5-foot-10 and 5-foot-8 while Karbo comes off the bench at 5-foot-11. For the Blackjacks, however, the 6-foot Allison Estling was the only starter over 5-foot-6. The Knights turned that height into consistent offensive rebounding success but often struggled to finish at the rim.

“We talked about getting good post touches and looking at the basket, taking care of that ball underneath and hopefully getting a few more scores,” Hesse said. “They were letting us get open drives and when we were scoring, we were turning on and putting pressure so that they couldn’t just walk that ball down the court.”

The first half of Thursday’s matchup was just as competitive as last year’s season-opener between the two teams. RTR defeated Dawson-Boyd by 2 points, 46-44, but graduated its two leading scorers from the game in Shae O’Leary and Ally Nelson. Dawson-Boyd also since graduated Ayiana Hastad, who had 14 points and 11 rebounds in the losing effort.

Lindsey Lund gave the Blackjacks the first points of the 2024-25 season when she hit a running hook to take the lead, but Matzner hit a pair of free throws to tie it and Guida came up with a steal to set up a Schreurs go-ahead layup on the ensuing possessions.

A Hjelmeland 3-pointer gave Dawson-Boyd the lead back but Baartman hit the first of two free throws and hit a layup through contact to put RTR back on top. A Karbo putback basket shortly thereafter gave the Knights the first multi-possession lead of the game at 9-5.

From there, Swedzinski seized momentum with Dawson-Boyd, draining 3s on consecutive trips down the floor. The teams exchanged layups until Dawson-Boyd called the game’s first timeout, tied 13-13 with 11 minutes left in the first half.

A Guida 3-pointer gave RTR a 20-17 lead but a pair of Dawson-Boyd layups put the Blackjacks back in the driver’s seat. They extended that lead up to 5 points but a Werkman layup at the buzzer trimmed Dawson-Boyd’s lead to 2 points at the break. 

Full stats were unavailable for Russell-Tyler-Ruthton at the time of print.

Russell-Tyler-Ruthton (1-0) will host Mountain Lake Area-Comfrey for its next game while Dawson-Boyd (0-1) will go on the road to take on Montevideo. Both games will be played on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m.