What Aberdeen Roncalli lacked in offensive efficiency, it made up for in defensive intensity Thursday night.

The Cavaliers made the going tough for Sisseton on the way to a 46-34 Northeast Conference boys’ basketball victory at Roncalli Gym.

“Defense is the thing that travels. Shots didn’t fall for us tonight,” said Roncalli coach Dan Gallagher. “We took some poor shots, too, that really put our defense in a tough position, but our defense stepped up. They played well, did a lot of good things on the perimeter and forced turnovers.”

The Cavaliers pulled away from a 5-5 tie late in the opening quarter and played with a double-digit lead the entire second half. The Redmen always stayed within striking distance, but just could not muster enough offense to make a serious run.

“We’ve been struggling on that end, trying to find ourselves and find what’s going to work,” said Sisseton coach Jared Groos. “We’ll just keep working.”

Sisseton trailed by 11 points down the stretch and had a chance to get the margin down to single digits before Roncalli produced three straight steals to help close out the win.

“I thought we did a great job defensively,” said Roncalli senior Maddox May. “I thought we could have done a lot better offensively, but we held them to 34 points. That’s pretty good. We just have to learn how to put some more points up on the offensive side.”

May did his part to help Roncalli produce a dozen offensive rebounds in the contest. Standing just 6-foot-1, he is accustomed to battling taller foes underneath the basket to get the ball.

“I do a pretty good job of boxing out normally,” May said. “That helps me get to the ball a little bit easier, and then I can jump pretty high so that helps, too.”

Both sides had a difficult time finding much offense with the game on the line. While Sisseton had just three points in the final six minutes, the Cavaliers could only manage five.

“It wasn’t a pretty game. There are a lot of things that we can clean up,” Gallagher said. “Hopefully, that’s our takeaway. Yes, we got a win and it’s a good thing that we can learn from a win.”

Darwin Gambler topped the Cavaliers with 12 points, Aiden Fisher followed with 11 and May finished with eight.

Nate Tchida led Sisseton with 10 points and Ethan DeSpiegler had eight.

“We had some good stops. We tried to take Tchida out of the game, just because we knew he’s a solid player,” Gallagher said. “He still ended up getting some shots up late. We knew that was our focus. I thought our guys played well there, now it’s just about executing a little bit more out of the defensive end and then playing that consistently all the way through.”

The combination of Roncalli’s solid defense and Sisseton’s lack of offense proved to be the difference.

“When you give up 46 points a game,” Groos said, “you think you should be able to score 48.”

The Cavaliers improved to 4-2 with the win and have now won three in a row and four of their last four games. They host Warner at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Roncalli Gym.

“Warner has always been pretty good. I know quite a few guys on their team,” May said. “They’re always pretty decent. It should be a good one.”

SISSETON (0-9): Ethan DeSpiegler 3 1-2 8, Colter Hanson 0 3-4 3, Mason Herzog 2 0-0 4, Nate Tchida 3 3-5 10, Carter Stickland 2 0-0 6, Dean Shultz 1 1-2 3. Totals 11-46 8-13 34.

ABERDEEN RONCALLI (4-2): Maddox Miller 2 0-0 5, Caden Shelton 1 0-0 2, Aiden Fisher 2 7-11 11, Maddox May 3 2-4 8, Brody Weinmeister 1 0-0 3, Darwin Gambler 5 0-2 12, Zane Backous 2 0-0 5. Totals 16-45 9-17 46.

Sisseton 5 13 26 34

Aberdeen Roncalli 13 22 39 46

3-point field goals – DeSpiegler, Tchida, Stickland 2; Miller, Weinmeister, Gambler 3, Backous. Fouled out – Tchida. Total fouls – Sisseton 16; Aberdeen Roncalli 12. Rebounds – Sisseton 30 (Herzog 6); Aberdeen Roncalli 35 (Miller 6, Jayden Munroe 6, May 5, Gambler 5). Turnovers – Sisseton 18; Aberdeen Roncalli 17.