BRITTON – Aberdeen Roncalli dominated the opening quarter and then built off it the rest of the way in a boys’ basketball win over Britton-Hecla Thursday night.

The Cavaliers led 19-1 after the first eight minutes and improved to 8-4 on the season with a 53-19 Northeast Conference victory.

Roncalli coach Dan Gallagher said it was probably his team’s most complete performance of the year to date.

“That second quarter was big in just keeping that momentum,” Gallagher said. “That’s something that throughout the year we’ve struggled with at times is playing with the lead and staying aggressive, but I thought we did a really good job.”

The Cavaliers were able to break the game open in the early stages of the game as four of the team’s first five baskets were three-point field goals. The long-range shooting was not necessarily by design.

“We went into the locker room saying, ‘We shot 17 threes so far in the first half. Let’s try to get to the basket,'” Gallagher said. “We got some to fall. That gave us an early lead. We kind of got back to what we were hoping to do at the start of the season too with some transition stuff, so we had some nice buckets there, too.”

Roncalli also had a solid third quarter putting the finishing touches on their complete contest.

“I thought overall our guys played with consistent effort all the way through,” Gallagher said. “Both offense and defense did their parts in the first three quarters.”

Caden Shelton led a balanced Roncalli effort with 11 points. Maddox Miller and Darwin Gambler each contributed eight, and Jayden Munroe added seven.

Dawson Treeby scored 10 points to top the Braves.

The Cavaliers have a busy stretch of basketball ahead. They face Dell Rapids at the NEC-Dak XII Clash in Madison at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, then head to Mobridge for a makeup game against Mobridge-Pollock on Monday, before hosting Potter County Tuesday at Roncalli Gym.

“It’s going to be a grind,” Gallagher said, “but then we get a couple of days off to get ready for Milbank and then it’s the home stretch.”

ABERDEEN RONCALLI (8-4): Maddox Miller 3 0-0 8, Caden Shelton 4 1-2 11, Jayden Munroe 3 0-0 7, Maddox May 1 1-2 3, Brody Weinmeister 2 0-0 5, Darwin Gambler 4 0-0 8, Zane Backous 2 0-2 5, Jackson Lewno 1 0-0 2, Parker Grieben 2 0-0 4. Totals 22 2-6 53.

BRITTON-HECLA (1-13): Dawson Treeby 3 2-2 10, William Schuller 0 0-2 0, Ashton Mill 1 0-0 2, Wyatt Tosse 1 0-0 2, Jaxon Zuehlke 0 5-6 5. Totals 5 7-10 19.

Aberdeen Roncalli 19 32 51 53

Britton-Hecla 1 10 15 19

3-point field goals – Miller 2, Shelton 2, Munroe, Weinmeister, Backous; Treeby 2. Total fouls – Aberdeen Roncalli 9; Britton-Hecla 6.