Playing their third game in the past five days, Aberdeen Roncalli found enough in the tank to finish off another foe Saturday afternoon.

The Cavaliers improved to 4-1 on the season following a 48-43 girls’ basketball win over Waubay-Summit during the Cavalier Classic at Roncalli Gym.

“We said we just have to grind out wins at this point,” said Roncalli coach Derek Larson. “I know we’re playing a lot of games in a short period of time. … This really feels like February right now where you have a one-day prep, game, one-day prep, game, one-day prep, game.”

The Cavaliers scored 11 unanswered points to start the contest and never trailed in the game. However, the hosts had a hard time shaking the Mustangs who battled back from 31-18 deficit in the third quarter and eventually sliced the margin down to 34-30 to start the fourth quarter.

With Roncalli holding a 38-31 lead, Larson called timeout with 5:28 remaining. When play resumed, Claire Crawford nailed a 3-pointer and then scored on a floater on Roncalli’s next possession to give the Cavaliers a 43-33 advantage.

“I thought she played with a lot of confidence today,” Larson said. “She shot open looks, made some open looks, and played with maybe more confidence than she has recently.”

Crawford said she kind of lets the game come to her and waits for her scoring opportunities.

“I just try and stay patient throughout the game,” Crawford said. “This year I’ve kind of started a little slower than normal to start the games, but I try and make my impact on the defensive end, and then slowly but surely they start forgetting about me and then I make them pay for it.”

While the Mustangs never quit, they weren’t able to fully recover from their slow start.

“It came down to a lot of missed layups,” said Waubay-Summit coach Caleb DeKam. “We put ourselves in a hole right away. We went down 12 in that first quarter.”

Those missed opportunities are magnified against Roncalli, but quality possessions are hard to come by.

“They play really good defense, so when you do get those layups, those open shots, you got to take advantage,” De Kam said. “We just didn’t do enough of that.”

The Mustangs continued to chip away at the deficit and got it down to three points on the hot shooting of Addison Heinje, but could never get over the hump as it’s hard to string a run of points together against the Roncalli defense.

“That’s a credit to their coaching staff,” De Kam. “They do a good job of taking stuff away and making you uncomfortable and they did that again tonight.”

Heinje, who led all scorers with 26 points, 11 points in the fourth quarter, to keep the Mustangs in contention.

“We just had settle down and play our game,” Heinje said. “We knew that we can compete with teams like this.”

Heinje has scored 50 points in a game in her career and had two other performances where she went over 40.

“We had a hard time guarding Heinje, I know that,” Larson said. “She’s a really good player.”

This is Heinje’s first year with the Mustangs after transferring from Wilmot.

“It hasn’t been super different,” Heinje said, “but I’m really happy with the girls I have around me here and it’s been really good.”

Crawford and Gabby Thomas each had 10 points, while Karsyn Davis and Rylee Voeller each finished with nine for Roncalli.

“We needed all the points we could get,” Larson said. “I thought Karsyn had a couple of good finishes in the fourth quarter off an inbounds play.”

Crawford said the Cavaliers can hurt teams in a variety of manners this season.

“It’s definitely nice having posts to feed this year. The last couple years has been really guard heavy, but it’s’’s really nice having Kars and Liv (Dix) and Grace (Cogley),” Crawford said. “They all know each other well in the post. When we get the high-low action going and kicking out to the wings too, it all flows nicely.”

Roncalli has more game before the break, hosting Herreid-Selby Area Monday night at Roncalli Gym.

WAUBAY-SUMMIT (2-1): Addison Heinje 9 4-5 26, Liza Purdy 1 0-0 2, Caley Boik 3 1-2 8, Brynlee Amdahl 2 0-0 5, Mackenzie Zubke 1 0-0 2. Totals 15 5-7 43.

ABERDEEN RONCALLI (4-1): Gabby Thomas 5 0-0 10, Morgan Helms 1 1-2 4, Claire Crawford 4 0-0 10, Karsyn Davis 3 1-2 9, Rylee Voeller 3 2-2 9, Elyana Roach 1 1-1 3, Olivia Dix 1 1-2 3. Totals 20 7-9 48.

Waubay-Summit 9 18 28 43

Aberdeen Roncalli 17 27 34 48

3-point field goals – Heinje 4, Boik, Amdahl; Helms, Crawford 2, Voeller. Total fouls – Waubay-Summit 14; Aberdeen Roncalli 10. Turnovers – Waubay-Summit 14; Aberdeen Roncalli 12.