Aberdeen Roncalli used a strong second half of defense to pull away from a youth-laden Clark-Willow Lake squad Saturday afternoon, claiming a 56-24 Northeast Conference girls’ basketball victory over the Cyclones at the Roncalli Gym.

The Cavaliers scored on their first five possessions of the game and six of their first seven, building a 13-0 lead early, but then went radio silent, going nearly a quarter without a field goal.

“(We were) just trying to force passes rather than making the easy pass,” said Roncalli sophomore Claire Crawford. “We need to move more on offense and get better looks.”

During that offensive lull, the Cyclones fought their way back into contention, closing to 13-8 and 15-10 midway through the second quarter.

“We had a good quarter,” said Clark-Willow Lake coach Andrea Begeman. 

Roncalli coach Derek Larson acknowledged his team wasn’t playing to its potential in the first half.

“We were really sloppy with the ball,” Larson said. “Yes, we wanted to get out and run in transition, but we also had to do it under control. Passes hit the back wall and we didn’t get out and turn around. Passes hit us as we were running down the floor. We also didn’t help ourselves on the defensive end doing little things like boxing out. We had position and got pushed under the hoop. We told our kids that was pretty much all about effort.”

That offensive push from the Cyclones, however, was interrupted by a renewed effort on the defensive end by the Cavaliers. Roncalli doubled down on its guard pressure, which led to some defensive pickoffs on the perimeter and fast break opportunities at the other end.

“I think you could tell a noticeable difference in the second half in defensive intensity and effort,” Larson said. “I think we gave up one offensive rebound in the last two minutes. Otherwise we didn’t give another one up the whole second half.”

Begeman said her team, which started an eighth-grader and brought another eighth-grader, a seventh-grader and three freshmen in off the bench and doesn’t have a senior on the roster, is having to learn through some growing pains.

“It’s kind of the way the year is going,” Begeman said. “They are young. We’ve got to find a little bit of putting two, three, four quarters together. Roncalli, in the second half, took us out of everything we wanted to do, and we didn’t adjust very well.”

Roncalli held Clark-Willow Lake to just nine second-half points and pulled steadily away in the second half.

“We told our kids that can’t be a switch we just flip, because that’s how you lose games,” Larson said. “Hamlin on Tuesday, we’ll lose if we flip the switch late.”

Roncalli’s Ava Hanson led all scorers with 26 points, while Crawford had 10.

Clark-Willow Lake got 11 points off the bench from Brynn Roerich and nine from Tehya Vig.

Saturday’s game was Roncalli’s first in nearly two weeks, which Crawford said contributed to the Cavaliers’ slow start, but said that can’t happen going forward.

“It was good to get another game in before we play a good Hamlin team on Tuesday,” she said. “We’ve got to play hard on the defensive end from the start. We can’t wait until the second half to start playing defense.“

Roncalli will head to Hamlin on Tuesday for an NEC showdown.

“We’re 9-1 now,” Larson said. “But we don’t want to be satisfied with where we’re at. It’s going to be a lot tougher the second half of the season.”

CLARK-WILLOW LAKE (3-9): Tehya Vig 3 3-5 9, Kamryn Nesheim 0 1-2 1, Shay Michalski 0 1-2 1, Shelby Begeman 1 0-0 2, Brynn Roehrich 4 3-5 11. Totals 8 8-12 24.

ABERDEEN RONCALLI (9-1): McKenna O’Keefe 1 0-0 2, Camryn Bain 2 1-2 5, Maddie Huber 3 1-1 8, Claire Crawford 4 2-2 10, Ava Hanson 10 5-7 26. Gabby Thomas 0 0-2 0, Rylee Voeller 1 0-0 2, Olivia Dix 0 1-2 1, Elyana Roach 1 0-0 2. Totals 22 10-16 56.

Clark-Willow Lake 0 15 20 24

Aberdeen Roncalli 13 27 47 56

3-point field goals – Aberdeen Roncalli 2 (Huber, Hanson). Totals fouls – Clark-Willow Lake 13; Aberdeen Roncalli 9.