MELLETTE – Aberdeen Roncalli proved Friday night that defense can sometimes be the best offense.
The Cavaliers held Northwestern to just three points in the first and third quarters, turned countless turnovers into transition points, and picked up a 46-19 season-opening non-conference girls’ basketball victory.
“That’s again kind of what we preach, win on the defensive end, and I definitely think we did that today,” said Roncalli coach Derek Larson. “Early in the first quarter, man, it just seemed like every 3 we could possibly shoot, we let fly. … I feel like we were just kind of jacked up and every single one was long. We were kind of amped up to play, but I’m glad we kind of settled into it and let the defense dictate the rest of the game.”
After trailing 3-1 to start the game, the Cavaliers scored 17 unanswered points to take control. Roncalli repeatedly got into passing lanes to prevent the Wildcats from running their offense, and then stealing passes to lead its transition offense.
“We want to get in the passing lanes. I thought we did a decent job of that,” Larson said. “Still can improve upon that, but I thought we did an OK job of getting in the passing lanes and leading some defense to offense.”
Once Roncalli owned a commanding double-digit advantage, the Cavaliers made more of a conscious effort to work the ball inside for higher-percentage shots.
“We got get good looks, but again sometimes those good looks aren’t so good when you get them early in the shot clock. We don’t need those one-pass 3’s and again early in the game it seemed like we took a lot of those,” Larson said. “In the first half we took a lot of those, the second half I thought we did a better job just working the ball inside-out and got some good shots. We had some good lay down passes to the backside post and did a good job there, too.”
In the end though, it was all about Roncalli’s defensive effort that surrendered just six total field goals in the contest.
“We fouled too much. We played with our hands too much and kind of put ourselves into bad spots sometimes,” Larson said. “One thing I will say, I thought Morgan Helms did a phenomenal job on (Ashley) Haven. Morgan’s 5-5, Haven’s 6-foot and I thought she did a great job of guarding her. Didn’t hardly give up any post touches there. Really happy with how we played guarding that spot.”
Claire Crawford topped a balanced Roncalli attack with 11 points. Gabby Thomas followed with nine, and Jillian Ellwein contributed eight.
Breelyn Satter and Tara Blachford each had six points to lead Northwestern.
The Cavaliers host Redfield on Thursday at Roncalli Gym. Larson is happy to have the first contest checked into the win column.
“It’s a first game. We’re happy to be 1-0. Definitely a lot of stuff to improve upon,” Larson said, “but again happy that we’re 1-0 and not 0-1.”
ABERDEEN RONCALLI (1-0): Gabby Thomas 4 1-4 9, Morgan Helms 1 1-2 4, Claire Crawford 4 0-0 11, Karsyn Davis 1 3-4 5, Jillian Ellwein 3 2-2 8, Elyana Roach 2 0-0 4, Olivia Dix 0 4-6 4, Grace Cogley 0 1-2 1. Totals 15 12-20 46.
NORTHWESTERN (0-1): Breelyn Satter 2 1-4 6, Tara Blachford 2 0-0 6, Ashley Haven 1 1-3 3, Mikaela Schmitt 0 2-2 2, Taylor Vetter 1 0-0 2, Kyara Ratigan 0 0-2 0, Lilly Haven 0 0-3 0. Totals 6 2-14 19.
Aberdeen Roncalli 11 29 41 46
Northwestern 3 10 13 19
3-point field goals – Helms, Crawford 3; Satter, Blachford 2. Total fouls – Aberdeen Roncalli 18; Northwestern 15.
