Aberdeen Roncalli overcame a second-half deficit, but came up short on Friday as the Cavaliers fell to Milbank 51-45 in a Northeast Conference boys’ basketball game at Roncalli Gym.

Down 35-26 early in the fourth quarter, Roncalli used a 12-2 surge to take a 38-37 lead, thanks to five points each from Keegan Stewart and Aiden Fisher, as well as a basket by Maddox Miller.

Roncalli coach Dan Gallagher said it took a “one possession at a time” approach to climb back into the game.

“We’ve been in those situations; it just takes one possession at a time. We can’t look ahead,” Gallagher said. “They did score that first possession; we gave up a bucket to go down nine and all of a sudden within about a minute we’re back on the sideline because they had to call a timeout. We were down two, able to take the lead.”

Milbank coach Logan Diede said the beginning of the fourth quarter was “stressful” for his team.

“Obviously, we didn’t execute out of the gates in the fourth quarter defensively,” Diede said. “And then they brought some pressure that we succumbed to, but I’m really proud of the guys for getting locked back in.”

After giving up the lead, Milbank responded with a pair of baskets by Yohana Ajwanga to grab a 42-38 lead, which they held during the remainder of the game, finishing the contest with five made free-throws to put the game away.

Milbank senior Garrett Mertens, who knocked down two of those free throws, said staying calm under pressure was the key to making the clutch free throws.

“You just got to stay calm and just know that you can make them,” Mertens said. “You can’t think you’re going to miss them. You’ve got to know I’m going to make these and tell yourself that.”

The first half was a bag of mixed results for both squads as Roncalli and Milbank struggled to gain momentum. Gallagher said both teams worked to figure each other out in the first half.

“We tried to switch something up on defense right away and you could tell they weren’t ready for it,” Gallagher said. “They started face guarding Maddox a little bit, so we had to adjust some things, and then they dropped into their zone and that got us frustrated, so it was lot of just figuring out each other.”

The Cavaliers built a 16-9 lead early in the second quarter before Milbank went on an 8-0 run to take a 17-16 lead. From there a back-and-forth affair ensued before Roncalli took a 22-21 advantage into the locker room.

“We were kind of bad on defense,” Mertens said of Milbank’s first-half efforts. “We were letting them get too far inside and we just got to be stronger and not let them get so far in and rebound the basketball better.”

During the third quarter, the Bulldogs used aggressive rebounding and second-chance opportunities to score the first seven points of the quarter and outscore the Cavaliers 12-4 overall, setting up the intense fourth quarter.

Diede said rebounding adjustments at halftime provided the spark for the Bulldogs.

“The talk going into the game was we need to use our length, athleticism, and make it muddy inside, and we need to dominate the rebound game, and we didn’t really do that in the first half” Diede said. “In the third quarter, collectively we had guys flying to the rebounds, boxing out, and all of the things that we needed to do in the first half, and that’s what got us over the hump was the collective team effort on the boards.”

Rebounding became a point of emphasis for both teams, as the lengthy Bulldogs controlled the boards, frustrating the Cavaliers.

“It was everything,” Gallagher said of the rebounding battle. “Over the last couple of games, I thought we’ve been doing better. We’ve got to be more consistent. When a shot goes up, we box out, rebound the basketball.”

Mertens led Milbank with 15 points, while Ajwanga had 14 and Joe Schulte 13. Jaxson Wildung added nine to the total.

The Bulldogs (9-5) have two road games next week as they travel to Sisseton on Tuesday before heading to Tri-Valley on Saturday. Diede the team needs to focus down the final stretch of the season.

“Next week’s another big week,” Diede said. “We need to make sure that we bounce back next week with big-time effort and energy with two games, one being a conference game with Sisseton, the other being against a tough, athletic Tri-Valley team. They don’t have a great record, but they’re a tough team, so big week ahead. We’ve just got to keep moving forward and focus on what’s in front of us, not what’s behind us.”

Stewart led Roncalli with 23 points, while Fisher had 12. Maddox Miller contributed 10 to the total.

The Cavaliers (9-6) travel to Miller on Tuesday, and while rebounding will be among several things that will be looked at, Gallagher said the positive outlook is that things can be corrected.

“The best and worst thing about it is everything is extremely correctable,” Gallagher said. “It’s not like we have to reinvent everything that we’re doing. It’s all things that we can look back on and say if we play them again, we’ll be OK, we just have to correct those things.”

MILBANK (9-5): Garrett Mertens 5 5-8 15, Jaxson Wildung 2 4-4 9, Joe Schulte 4 5-6 13, Yohana Ajwanga 5 3-4 14. Totals 16 17-22 51.

ABERDEEN RONCALLI (9-6): Maddox Miller 5 0-0 10, Keegan Stewart 9 2-5 23, Aiden Fisher 5 0-0 12, Brody Weinmeister 0 0-2 0. Totals 19 2-7 45.

Milbank 9 21 33 51

Aberdeen Roncalli 12 22 26 45

3-point field goals – Wildung, Ajwanga; Stewart (3), Fisher (2). Totals fouls – Milbank 16; Aberdeen Roncalli 18.