Photo by Jake McNeill: Russell-Tyler-Ruthton forward Dilyn Werkman goes up for a floater during the firts half of a prep girls basketball game against Mountain Lake Area-Comfrey on Tuesday in Tyler.

TYLER — Baskets were hard to come by early on in the Russell-Tyler-Ruthton girls basketball team’s game against Mountain Lake Area-Comfrey on Tuesday night. While the Knights’ shots from long range weren’t falling, gritty play on defense and on the offensive boards helped the Knights pull away for a 49-31 victory.

“It’s only our second game, so we’re still working on figuring out our plays and stuff, but I think after talking at halftime, we figured out on offense to get around that defense,” RTR guard Avery Schreurs said. “[MLAC was] really scrappy and they were fast, so we had to figure out what to do to get around them.”

Schreurs’ was one of the key pieces for RTR all night long with her play on defense and her ability to get the ball moving in transition. She scored the Knights’ first point when she came away with a steal to set up a fast break. While her shot didn’t fall on the break, RTR came down with two offensive rebounds on the possession before Schreurs got fouled in the paint and knocked down a free throw. Adelia Matzner followed up with a layup on the next possession and the Knights held a 3-0 lead through the first 90 seconds.

The offenses went cold from there with neither team knocking down a shot for nearly five minutes. Julia Brinkman ended the drought for the Wolverines with a tying 3-pointer from the top of the key, but Addisyn Serreyn nailed a second-chance jumper on the following possession to regain the lead.

Following another scoring drought of over four minutes, Ava Karbo hit a layup and Pairley Thooft stole the inbound and got fouled on her layup attempt to get another layup for an 8-3 RTR lead. THe Knights got an offensive board when she missed her second attempt from the charity stripe but couldn’t convert the second-chance opportunity for a 5-point possession.

Briella Buchert tripped on a fast break but found 41 with a pass from the ground for a layup and a 10-5 RTR lead with five minutes remaining. The Knights’ touch at the glass developed from there, with RTR scoring more points in the final five minutes of the half than they did in the first 13.

Schreurs got the scoring stretch going with an and-1 layup with 4:42 to play and a Buchert layup on the next possession gave RTR its first double-digit lead, 15-5.

Ava Karbo stripped a slasher on the defensive end to set up a layup for 41 and Buchert got one more for the Knights to make the score 21-7, its largest lead of the half, but the Wolverines answered in the half’s waning seconds to cut the RTR lead down to 21-10 at the break.

Brinkman had been the driving force of the Wolverines’ offense early on. MLAC struggled to get anything going offensively when she left the game after taking a hard foul while taking a charge, but she quickly reignited the offense when she got back in the game during the final five minutes of the first half.

Her play allowed the Wolverines to cut RTR’s lead to as few as 6 points after the break, 25-19, but they never were able to get within striking distance. With 5:44 remaining in the second half, she once again exited the game after a physical loose ball collision.

With five minutes remaining, Serreyn hit the Knights’ first 3 of the game from the right side of the arc to make the score 40-23.

While they weren’t able to consistently capitalize, they Knights dominated the hustle plays in the game. Whether it was offensive rebounding or forcing turnovers, RTR found ways to generate extra possessions for its offense.

RTR improves to 2-0 with the win. While the Knights never won more than two consecutive games all of last season, they’ll have the opportunity to string together three in a row with their first three games of this year when they host Murray County Central (1-2) on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.