Photo by Samantha Davis. Russell-Tyler-Ruthton's Sean Griesse beats his defender and begins to drive toward the basket in the first half against Murray-County-Central Thursday night in Tyler. Griesse led with 20 points in the Knights' 58-49 win. 

TYLER — Sean Griesse and Chase Christianson combined for 34 points as the Russell-Tyler-Ruthton boys basketball team prevailed for a 58-49 win over a tough Murray County Central team in a hard fought battle Thursday night in Tyler. Griesse led with a game-high 20 points and was a key defensive player to influence the victory.

“Our momentum through that second half carried us through those final last minutes,” Griesse said. “We just stepped [it up] and finished it off from there.”

The game didn’t see more than a 10-point lead, held by the Knights at one point, but MCC continued to respond on runs and played in a zone defense the entire night to keep the game within a few possessions.

“Their [RTR] pressure is tough. I thought we handled it well for the majority of the game,” MCC head coach Tim Cariveau said. “There were some opportunities we’d like to get back offensively, and then defensively, we had it seemed like three or four times where we just didn’t get set up in our defense, and it killed us … That’s the difference.”

RTR went into halftime up 25-23, and it wasn’t until the final few minutes when the Knights were able to break away behind several crucial defensive plays from Griesse, who had numerous steals and fast break layups throughout the night.

“Defense is my specialty,” Griesse said. “I’ve taken a lot of pride through my whole career in defense, and just try to shut down one guy to make it a 5-on-4 game, rather than 5-on-5. It just really helps if you’re able to do that.”

Christianson finished with 14 points behind Griesse for the Knights.

For MCC, Maxwell Miller led the way with 17 points behind five 3-pointers. Aidan Swenson tallied another 12 points.

RTR, who now extends its win streak to 14 consecutive games, has been cruising through the competition recently. Prior to Thursday, the Knights won their last three games by 21 or more points.

MCC started its season 8-2 through its first 10 games, but has struggled with finding consistency over the past month. It has now dropped four games in a row.

Two of the three Rebels’ losses before visiting RTR came at the hands of No. 7 Hills-Beaver Creek, but they fell by just one possession on Tuesday, 70-68.

“We are capable of winning these games,” Cariveau said. “We are closing that gap. There’s these stretches in the game, a lot of times at the end too, where we’ll go empty possessions in the last like three minutes or so … That’s what hurt us.”

RTR built up a 10-point lead during the first half, to which MCC was able to erase and go on a run. Both teams played aggressive defense, forcing a handful of steals off one another and getting blocks.

“We tried to mix it up between a couple different zones and some scrambling out of it. I thought maybe that gave us our best chance too, if we make sure that we find their shooters,” Cariveau said regarding MCC playing a zone. “There were a couple times where guys that we were okay with shooting, made some shots. So, credit to RTR. Big winning streak, and that’s what winners do.”

At the half, Christianson led RTR with 10 points and Miller had 9 points for the Rebels with a trio of 3’s.

MCC struggled with its shooting to start, but the drought didn’t last long as Miller began to heat up at the perimeter and others followed.

The Knights’ obtained a 21-11 double digit lead midway through the first half after Christianson got the ball inside for a jump shot at the block.

MCC had a momentum shift and went on an 8-0 run to bring the game within a possession to end the half.

The second half opened the same way the first ended, with another 3-pointer from Miller for MCC and a Griesse steal and layup for RTR.

“Honestly, he [Miller] puts so much time in the gym. He expects every shot to go in,” Cariveau said. “I think everyone expects every shot he takes to go in. Yeah, he’s doing great and he’s a big part of what we do.”

The Rebels took their first lead of the game after Swenson hit a low jump shot, 30-29.

After several minutes of trading baskets, RTR built up a 41-35 lead after Christianson hit a block and Griesse found the open pocket in the zone defense for a layup. But once again, Miller sank a 3 to bring the game right back to a possession, with an MCC 41-38 deficit with about nine minutes to go.

“In the first half, we started with our three-high, two-low [offense response to the zone defense], and that wasn’t really working because we weren’t moving on the top as much,” Griesse said. “So, in the second half, we switched to a 2-1-2, swung it to the corner and then just played the high-low game with the post.”

Luke Schreurs hit a 3-pointer to give RTR back a 10-point lead, 49-39, and forced a Rebels’ turnover on the defensive end with an overthrown pass.

RTR began to take control on both ends of the court with a floater down the middle of the lane from Tyler Wichmann, followed by Juhl Drake who went sprinting down the court on defense to stop an open MCC layup.

With a minute and a half to go, Griesse collected yet another steal and made the break away layup to put the Knights up 56-45 to help seal the win.

“Our team offense,” Griesse said regarding how RTR pulled off the victory. “We got to keep working together through the end of the season, because it would be nice to [get the] one seed.”

MCC’s Swenson hit a spin move in the lane and made the basket to bring the Rebels deficit to 58-49 with 30 seconds left, but it was too much of a difference to overcome again as RTR hung on in the final minute.

Christianson, one of RTR’s primary playmakers, hit a corner three in the game’s first few minutes and landed wrong on the jump to tweak his left ankle. But, he walked off the court unassisted and went back into the game minutes later, immediately hitting a 3-pointer in the same spot.

To begin its run in the first half, Dylan Kluis hit a jump shot to initially end MCC’s scoring drought, and Miller drilled in a pair of 3-pointers to bring the game to a 21-19 RTR advantage.

Griesse began to heat up toward the end of the first, finishing the half with two steals and fast break layups to keep the Knights slightly ahead.

MCC’s Carter Hanson blocked Schreurs’ 3-point attempt from behind to end the first half, and the Rebels went into the locker room down by two points.

The Rebels move to 11-9 overall on the season, and will next look to get back on track at Lamberton to play Red Rock Central (3-17) at 7:30 p.m.

RTR (18-2) will look for its 15th straight win when it hosts Pipestone Area (7-11) at noon on Saturday.

“We realized at about seven or eight games [in a row], that we are going to have a big target on our back because of the win streak,” Griesse said. “We got to keep working hard in practice, working hard in games and keep playing as a team together.”