Leola-Frederick pushed the paced Thursday night at Roncalli Gym and ended up pushing its record to 7-0 on the season.

The Titans used their defense to control the tempo on the way to a 65-51 non-conference boys’ basketball win over Aberdeen Roncalli.

Roncalli coach Dan Gallagher gave credit to the Titans for coming away with the win.

“They’re a solid team. You have to give them a lot of credit,” Gallagher said. “They’ve just really improved over the last year or so and their guards are tough to stop, and when they’re getting to the basket, they’re hitting those shots, it kills momentum.”

Leola-Frederick raced out to an early 11-4 lead thanks to an aggressive defense that led to transition buckets.

“It’s frustrating when you have to go up against us full court, constant harassment,” Leola-Frederick coach Brock Pashen said. “We’re making you make the right decisions all the time, and we’ve got a bunch of good athletes, good basketball players, and they’re fun to watch in the open court.”

That constant harassment was evident as Roncalli struggled to set up its offense for much of the first half.

“We knew coming in that they were a really good defensive team and they were going to full court press us,” Roncalli guard Aiden Fisher said. “Kudos to them, they just played great defensively and we couldn’t handle the pressure.”

After a timeout, the Cavaliers clawed their way back, cutting the Titan lead down to 13-12, thanks, in part, to two baskets each by Fisher and Parker Grieben; however, Leola-Frederick closed out the quarter on a 9-3 run.

“In that first quarter, we had a couple of really good transition buckets, and then right away they come down and they hit a big shot,” Gallagher said. “It’s not like we had poor defense, it’s just they were making tough plays.”

Leola-Frederick continued to build its lead in the second quarter, ending the first half on a 3-point basket by Brayden Sumption to take a 40-28 advantage into the locker room.

The Titans came out in the third quarter and scored seven quick points to stretch the lead to 47-28. Sumption said the team was determined to continue pouring in the points.

“Coach still wasn’t happy with the scoreboard,” Sumption said, “so we just took it out on them.”

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers were still struggling to find their way early in the second half as costly turnovers and mistakes piled up.

“It’s just one of those things where a lot of things went their way, but they were also just forcing us into some things,” Gallagher said. “It’s one of those things like we’ve just got to wake up and get going again.”

Leola-Frederick extended its lead to 62-40 early in the final period, before closed the game on an 11-3 run. Despite the loss, the Cavaliers were satisfied with how they finished the contest.

“We pride ourselves with effort and that’s just what we played with even though a lot of us were in foul trouble,” Fisher said. “But we just played with effort, transition, and defense.”

Fisher led Roncalli with 13 points, while Keegan Stewart and Maddox Miller each contributed 12.

Sumption led the Titans with 19 points. The senior had a simple message for how the team can continue to improve moving forward: “Just keep practicing.”

Noah Kippley contributed 16 points in the victory.

Leola-Frederick will host Waverly-South Shore on Saturday, and Pashen said his team will need to play its style of game heading into the contest.

“They’re huge. They’ve got some big boys, so boxing out is going to be huge,” Pashen said. “But forcing them to play at our pace, our tempo, we like that against a lot of teams in our area and our region and our conference.”

The Cavaliers (2-4) will look to correct their mistakes before hosting Sully Buttes on Monday.

“I think we’ve got to look a little deeper at ourselves,” Gallagher said. “We’ve got a lot of great pieces, we’ve just got to find a way to come together a little bit more, so that’s going to be our focus (on Friday), and then over the weekend really dive in deep to Sully Buttes. They’re a solid team with a really good guard in (Wesley) Wittler, so we’re going to have our hands full on Monday.”

LEOLA-FREDERICK AREA (7-0): Brayden Sumption 7 3-7 19, Gavin Nickelson 2 0-0 4, Noah Kippley 5 3-5 16, Milo Sumption 3 1-2 7, Ethan Petrich 2 2-2 6, Westyn Thorpe 2 0-0 4, Taylor Himanga 1 0-0 3, Winston Clark 3 0-2 6. Totals 25 9-18 65.

ABERDEEN RONCALLI (2-4): Maddox Miller 5 2-5 12, Caden Shelton 3 0-0 6, Keegan Stewart 4 3-5 12, Aiden Fisher 5 2-3 13, Parker Grieben 4 0-1 8. Totals 21 7-14 51.

Leola-Frederick 22 40 58 65

Aberdeen Roncalli 15 28 40 51

3-point field goals – N. Kippley (3), B. Sumption (2), Himanga; Stewart, Fisher. Total fouls –Leola-Frederick Area 16; Aberdeen Roncalli 19. Rebounds – Leola-Frederick Area 23 (M. Sumption 5).