GROTON – From their proficient 3-point shooting to their suffocating defense, the Groton Tigers were clicking on all cylinders Tuesday night.

The Tigers scored the first 27 points of the game on the way to a 70-17 win over Redfield during the opening round of the Region 1A boys’ basketball tournament.

“The kids did a good job tonight,” said Groton coach Brian Dolan. “They’ve been working hard all year and now it’s time to get rewarded for that. We’ll just keep our nose to the grindstone and keep working.”

The Tigers racked up 15 3-pointers in the contest, receiving triples from 10 different players in the victory.

“We talked about that in practice. Last game we played them, they ate us up inside,” said Redfield coach Lance Howe. “I said we have to take away the middle, take away the paint, and we’re going to live with them either making the threes or not making the threes.”

On Tuesday night, it was the Tigers who were alive and well.

While Groton was scoring from all angles, it also made life miserable for the Pheasants when they had the ball. The Tigers harassed ball handlers out front to keep the ball out of the lane, and then prevented easy attempts on the rare occasions when Redfield did get the ball inside.

“We work on that a lot in practice. We work on shell drill,” said Groton center Logan Ringgenberg. “Make them get their shots from 3-point, don’t let them get any easy shots inside. We’re always in gap helping backside, anything you’ve got to do.”

Not only did Ringgenberg make his presence felt on defense, he made his first-ever three-point shot in a varsity game.

“Logan can make them, we just never use him out there,” Dolan said. “He hit a beautiful one this summer. We ran a pick and pop for him. He stepped out, perfect rotation and knocked it down.”

In the end, Groton’s experience and depth was too much for the young Pheasants, who had three eighth-graders on the floor during the contest.

“We’re so young. We’re small, we’re young, we don’t have enough depth and these guys can come in waves of 8-10 guys,” Howe said of the Tigers. “They’re elite. They’re a state (tournament) quality team.”

Groton had 13 different players scoring during the game and shot 45 percent from 3-point range.

“They’re the number one (seeded) team. They’re really really good and obviously they proved it here tonight,” said Redfield senior Justin Ratigan. “We’re really young and all I can ask is try to get those younger ones better, and get them the experience that they need.”

Ratigan led the Pheasants (who finished the year at 1-20) with eight points and added to his impressive rebound collection. Ratigan, who once grabbed 21 rebounds in a single game, finished second all-time in career rebounds at Redfield. Perhaps his biggest contribution this season was his leadership that he and fellow seniors provided for their younger teammates.

“They knew that we were behind them,” Ratigan said. They knew that we were willing to help them, we were willing to show them everything, and able to help as much as we can, and give them the best head start that we can.”

Lane Tietz topped Groton with 19 points. The Tigers, 17-4, will now face Aberdeen Roncalli at 7 p.m. Friday for the right to advance to the SoDak 16.

“We just have to go out there and play our best ball and keep moving on, focus on the little things, don’t get down on yourself,” Ringgenberg said. “Coach Dolan, his favorite saying going into the playoffs is be a goldfish, have a 10-second memory, so if anything bad happens, forget about it, move on.”

Wait, how does Coach Dolan know that a goldfish has a 10-second memory?

“I think he got it from Nemo or something,” Ringgenberg said (it’s actually from the Ted Lasso TV show, according to Dolan). “That’s kind of a motivation. You can’t hang your head on anything. Just go out there and do your best.”

While goldfish are providing motivation, a late-season win over two-time defending State A champion Dakota Valley is providing confidence for the Tigers.

“It really sparked some kids eyes on the team. It shows that we can do this,” Ringgenberg said. “Dakota Valley, that’s their third loss in three years. It just shows that we can play with these teams.”

REDFIELD (1-20): Tristen O’Daniel 2 1-2 5, Micah Zastrow 1 0-0 2, Justin Ratigan 4 0-2 8, Grady Hulscher 1 0-0 2. Totals 8-27 1-4 17.

GROTON (17-4): Lane Tietz 7 0-0 19, Keegan Tracy 3 0-0 7, Jacob Zak 2 0-0 5, Ryder Johnson 1 1-2 4, Logan Ringgenberg 2 0-0 5, Colby Dunker 2 0-0 5, Kassen Keough 2 0-0 6, Gage Sippel 0 1-2 1, Turner Thompson 2 0-0 5, Holden Sippel 2 0-0 5, J.D. Schwan 1 0-0 3, Logan Warrington 0 1-2 1, Karson Zak 2 0-0 4. Totals 16-40 3-6 70.

Redfield 0 5 11 17

Groton 24 43 59 70

3-point field goals – Tietz (5), Tracy, J. Zak, Johnson, Ringgenberg, Dunker, Keough (2), Thompson, H. Sippel, Schwan. Total fouls – Redfield 4; Groton 4. Rebounds – Redfield 17 (Ratigan 5); Groton 26 (K. Zak 6). Turnovers – Redfield 22; Groton 7.