WARNER – Sully Buttes played downhill basketball to force Aberdeen Roncalli into an uphill battle Saturday evening.

The ninth-rated Chargers relentlessly attacked the rim to pave the way to a 63-47 non-conference victory during the Warner Classic.

“We’ve got some kids that are pretty physical at the rim. They play hard,” said Sully Buttes coach Brian White, who’s team lost to Mobridge-Pollock on Thursday. “Today was a great bounce back for them. Probably didn’t have our best one the other night and kind of needed a response, and we saw a great response out of them tonight.”

No one attacked the rim more than Wesley Witter. The senior was around the ball the entire game, finishing with game-high totals of 27 points and 17 rebounds.

“I use my teammates. I use my athletic ability for the good. I haven’t really, this season, been knocking down shots, but I know that when I get to the rim I’m a good player and then I find people down low,” Wittler said. “Rebounding, we’re not the biggest team, but I’ve got to use my athletic ability as one of the bigger guys and get those boards, because it’s big.”

The Cavaliers knew what they were up against in trying to contain the all-state player.

“He’s a phenomenal athlete,” said Roncalli coach Dan Gallagher. “We knew that when he was a freshman, when he put up 25 on us that game, so we knew he was going to be a handful for us.”

Wittler did not have one of his spot-on shooting performances, but has a knack for always being around the ball and repeatedly got inside the Roncalli defense for high-percentage shots.

“He’s just really active. He is super active. He’s a strong, athletic kid. He gets a lot of stuff done,” White said. “He’s one of those kids, he doesn’t have to shoot it well to have a good night. When he does shoot it well, it really changes everything.”

Just because Wittler misses a shot or two or more, does not mean he is not a threat.

“It’s confidence,” Wittler said. “I’ve seen the ball go in a million times, so I know even if I miss four shots in a row, I just got to keep going, use my ability to get to the rim and make shots.”

While both teams struggled a bit out of the gate, the Chargers found some offense before Roncalli did to take control in building a 23-9 advantage early in the second quarter.

“They turned it on faster than we did,” Gallagher said, “23-9 deficit, that’s hard to battle back from.”

A good share of Roncalli’s offense came in the lane, where the Cavaliers took advantage of a size difference and fed the ball to 6-foot-4 post Bryson Olson.

“It was Bryson’s type of game,” Gallagher said. “We talked about how we have to make sure we’re getting it inside. … Bryson was able to show what he’s capable of doing.”

Olson finished the contest with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and three blocked shots.

“We knew they were undersized. I personally like those mismatches on me,” Olson said. “I’m taller than everybody. I can get in the paint, I can score. They ran us off the 3-point line.”

While the Cavaliers were able to get some things done in the lane on offense, they couldn’t prevent the Chargers from getting in the lane on the other end of the floor.

“We knew coming into the game, they’re a fast team. They crash the boards a lot,” Olson said. “That’s just something us as a whole team needs to get better at. We need to start sitting on defense more, just the fundamentals.”

Easton Moore added 21 points to the Sully Buttes ledger.

The Chargers, 13-5 on the season, have had no trouble scoring points. It’s defense that is a focus, according to Wittler.

“Defense, that’s where we’re priding ourselves right now. We have five losses, five tough losses,” Wittler said. “We’ve played really good teams so far and we’ve lost to them, but I feel like some of them could have gone our way. Defense, that’s what it came down to. … We’re going to score enough points.”

Sully Buttes will try to continue to gain momentum heading into the postseason.

“Every win’s big this time of the year,” White said. “We’re just going to keep trying to go 1-0 every single night and we’ll worry about the playoffs when we get there.”

Jesse Hernandez contributed 15 points for Roncalli, and Austin Fisher added nine.

The Cavaliers, 5-11 on the year, have a road game at Deuel on Thursday night.

“We can definitely build off of this game,” Olson said of facing the Chargers. “They’re a really good team. Going into Deuel, that’s our main priority. We really need that win.”

ABERDEEN RONCALLI (5-11): Jesse Hernandez 5 4-4 15, Austin Fisher 1 6-9 9, Quinten Shelton 0 1-2 1, Bryson Olson 9 2-9 20, Mason Berndt 1 0-2 2. Totals 16-40 13-26 47.

SULLY BUTTES (13-5): Wesley Wittler 11 5-9 27, Gavin Colson 3 0-0 6, Jett Yackley 4 0-0 9, Easton Moore 11 8-10 21. Totals 24-55 13-19 63.

Aberdeen Roncalli 7 21 35 47

Sully Buttes 18 37 47 63

3-point field goals – Hernandez, Fisher; Yackley, Moore. Totals fouls – Aberdeen Roncalli 17; Sully Buttes 21. Rebounds – Aberdeen Roncalli 30 (Olson 10); Sully Buttes 39 (Wittler 17 rebounds). Turnovers – Aberdeen Roncalli 13; Sully Buttes 6.