Photo by Samantha Davis. Russell-Tyler-Ruthton's Colten Thomsen makes a field goal inside the lane during the first half against Canby Monday night in Tracy. Thomsen led all scorers with 25 points in the Knights 87-25 win. 

TYLER — The Russell-Tyler-Ruthton boys basketball team controlled all aspects of the game from tip off powered behind Colten Thomsen’s 25 points, tying Canby’s total points, in an 87-25 dominant victory Monday night. The Knights only allowed 10 points in the second half, and the Lancers remain looking for their first win of the season.

“Each game we come out, we want to set the tone on the defensive side. That’s our focus and our goal game in and game out,” RTR head coach Daren Gravley said. “I thought we did a good job of that. I liked the pace of play we had — We try to play a little faster and get out in transition.”

Along with Thomsen, Chase Christianson followed with 13 points and Luke Schreurs added 11. Both Schreurs and Thomsen hit a trio of 3-pointers.

For Canby, Casey Hoiland finished with a team-high 11 points behind a pair of 3s, and Jace Rangaard tallied 5 points.

RTR came out firing on all cylinders, jump started by a pair of 3-pointers from Schreurs to get the night started. The Knights collected several steals and fast break layups to also set the tone on the defensive side of things early on, and they never lost sight of their double-digit advantage at any point once obtained.

RTR built up a 64-15 lead by half time.

“The guys did a good job of getting stops, getting rebounds and then getting out in transition, and getting layups around the floor hard. Then in the half-court offense, we were able to knock some threes down early,” Gravley said. “We just grew with confidence from there, and we were able to just keep it going.”

The Lancers have had a troubling start to the season, who now fall to 0-10. All losses have come by 14 or more points, and four games have been decided by 40 or more points.

“We had some sickness going around, so we didn’t have all our guys here. We played very young tonight,” Canby head coach Ryan Lalim said.

The Knights on the other hand are on a good stride, and have only dropped two games at their season opener to No. 2 Dawson-Boyd and fell by 10 points to an undefeated Hills-Beaver Creek team on Friday.

By the half, Thomsen led with 16 points, while Christianson had 13.

Following Schreurs’ 3s to start, Canby’s Hoiland hit a jumper and got a steal afterwards in an attempt to start some Lancer spark.

Of RTR’s first 16 points, 12 of them came from four 3-pointers with another two from Juhl Drake.

Thomsen and Christianson sank back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Knights up 24-4 six minutes into the game, and one more 3 from Tyler Wichmann forced Canby to call a timeout.

“Our motto this year is to get 1% better every day,” Lalim said. “We go to practice, we go to school, we go to games and we get 1% better every day.”

RTR built up to a 30-point advantage at 36-6 after Gavin Schreurs cut inside the lane to receive the inbound pass and went up for a reverse layup.

“Don’t let bad habits creep in, and just continue to play hard and have fun,” Gravley said regarding how the team stayed ahead. “We were able to get pretty deep into our bench tonight, and everybody got out and was able to contribute. It was a good night.”

Thomsen and Christianson were big threats on both ends of the court, to which the Lancers struggled to find an answer to. They both stand at 6-foot-2 and 6-foot-5 respectively.

Thomsen grabbed a handful of steals and converted them to fast break layups on a few occasions, and Christianson’s aggressiveness in grabbing offensive boards continued to give RTR second chance points.

“Colten works hard on the defensive and offensive end. A lot of points he got tonight were just hustle points — Sprinting the floor without the ball, and teammates finding him for layups, and had a couple steals,” Gravley said. “He got in the passing lane really well and anticipated and was able to finish at the rim. He had a really great night.”

Gavin Schreurs got in on the defensive action with a steal and broke away for a layup to eclipse an RTR 40-point lead.

Canby got into double digits after Hoiland found himself open at the left wing for a 3 to move the score to 53-11.

But, Thomsen went on a 7-0 just himself with a 3-pointer and back-to-back steals and layups.

The second half wasn’t any different, as the Knights outshot the Lancers 23-10 throughout it.

Christianson opened up the half with another 3-pointer and RTR continued to cruise through the rest of the game with the running clock.

Gravley gave some reserve players an opportunity to see the court by putting them into the game midway through the last half, including Tyler Dagel who finished with 10 points.

“I also wanted to give Tyler Dagel some credit for coming off the bench,” Gravley said. “He just works hard all the time. A lot of guys played a good game tonight, and we just got to be consistent with our efforts.”

Canby (0-10) has a quick turnaround and will look to get its first win tonight when it travels to take on Minneota (3-6) at 7:30 p.m. The Vikings have dropped five consecutive games.

“We played Friday on the road, today on the road and tomorrow on the road,” Lalim said. “It’s a quick turnaround, but it will be a whole new team tomorrow.”

RTR (6-2) will next face a strong Murray County Central (7-2) team in Slayton on Thursday slated for 7:30 p.m. The Rebels have won four in a row.

“We’re going to have to prepare. They’re going to be a little bigger team with more size, and they’re going to be a lot deeper team,” Gravley said. “We’re going to go compete, and if we can knock shots down and get some stops, it should be a fun night.”