40th article at the Independent

CLASS A BOYS BASKETBALL: RTR falls to No. 1 Hayfield 66-49 in Class A opener

Chris Drummond

cdrummond@marshallindependent.com

MINNEAPOLIS — The Russell-Tyler-Ruthton boys basketball team knew things were going to be challenging in its Class A quarterfinal matchup against top-seeded Hayfield, especially with the Vikings looking to defend their Class A championship and only having two losses on the season to this point. Hayfield quickly gained a strong lead and didn’t look back, earning a 66-49 victory on Wednesday at Williams Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

The Vikings jumped out to a quick start, going on a 16-2 run before pushing their lead to 21-6 with 11:19 left in the first half. Despite junior guard Aiden Wichmann picking up two fouls early in the contest, RTR was able to draw the deficit to within 10 at 23-13 by forcing multiple turnovers with a press with 8:38 left, but Hayfield answered with a 7-0 run to take a 17-point lead, a margin that stood at halftime at 37-20.

Hayfield continued its momentum in the second half, using clutch three-point shooting despite being contested at times. The Vikings would connect on 10 3-pointers on the game (10-of-21, 47.6%) to help extend their lead to as many as 22 at 66-44 with 3:05 left en route to the 66-49 final.

RTR head coach Daren Gravley spoke about the shooting of the Vikings and about his team’s performance.

“They do a great job of setting screens in their actions and seemed like everything they put up went in,” Gravley said. “I was proud of our effort and energy, we cut it down to 13 points (in the second half), but they did a good job of closing the game out.”

Darrick Baartman led RTR with 14 points while Aiden Wichmann added 10 and Drew Werkman had eight. Werkman led in rebounds with seven while Tucker Haroldson led in assists and steals with three each.

The Vikings’ experience was exhibited in this game through execution and not being too overwhelmed in the moment as opposed to the Knights, who were at the state tournament for the first time since the 2017-18 season. Aiden Wichmann mentioned that the team was “definitely nervous” and coach Gravley echoed those same sentiments.

“There definitely was a wow factor early on in the game. Once we settled in, we competed and played even with them but that first six to seven minutes was hard to overcome.”

The Vikings will go on to play in the semifinals on Friday afternoon against Cherry while the Knights will play this morning at 10 a.m. in the consolation semifinals against Nevis at Concordia-

St. Paul.

Hayfield 66, RTR 49

RTR 20 29 – 49

Hayfield 37 29 – 66

Scoring: RTR (Baartman 4-13, 4-4 14; A. Wichmann 4-12, 1-1 10; Werkman 2-8, 3-4 8; Lamote 3-7, 0-0 6; Christianson 2-6, 0-0 5; Haroldson 2-4, 0-0 4; Anderson 1-5, 0-0 2).

Rebounds: RTR 28 (Werkman 7; A. Wichmann, Anderson 5).

Assists: RTR 7 (Haroldson 3; A. Wichmann 2).

Steals: RTR 8 (Haroldson 3; A. Wichmann, Baartman 2).