SISSETON – Aberdeen Roncalli did major damage from outside, held its own inside and picked up a 54-42 Northeast Conference girls’ basketball win over Sisseton Friday night. Roncalli is now 6-1 on the season.

The undersized Cavaliers battled the taller Redmen inside and held standout center Krista Langager to just 11 points, well below her season average.

“I thought as a whole, defensively, giving up only 11 to Krista Langager was a great night for us defensively,” said Roncalli coach Derek Larson, “especially when we’re so outsized. … They go 6-3, 6-2 in the post and we’re 5-10 and probably 5-7.”

Not only did Roncalli limit Sisseton’s inside touches, the Cavaliers also corralled 13 offensive rebounds on the night.

“We talked about that before the game.,” Larson said, “that if we can get their bigs to the perimeter and work 5-out motion, I don’t think they rebound real well when their bigs have to leave the paint.”

Meanwhile it was the outside attack on offense that fueled Roncalli’s 15-3 start to the contest. Ava Hanson nailed three 3-pointers to give the Cavaliers a lead they never lost. She added two more treys in the second half on the way to a game-high 25 points.

“She played today like she should be playing. … After she made the first couple we kind of gave her free rein,” Larson said.

It was her fourth 3-pointer and a pin point bounce pass to Claire Crawford in transition that helped Roncalli turn back a Sisseton rally which had sliced a 16-point deficit down to 33-32 late in the third quarter.

“That was a phenomenal pass,” Larson said of Hanson’s nearly half-court strike that hit Crawford in stride for a basket.

Soon, Roncalli had restored its double-digit advantage and put the contest away.

“It was nice to see after they made a run to one in the second half, that we were able to expand that and just and kind of hold on,” Larson said.

The Cavaliers were solid at the free-throw stripe, making 15 foul shots on the evening to stay in front.

“We got to the line a lot, 15 of 20 for the game,” Larson said. “Again, we haven’t shot 20 free throws in a long time. … We’re kind of perimeter-oriented. … We don’t get to the line a lot. We definitely did a better job today of just trying to be the aggressors, just trying to put some pressure on them at the rim.”

Maddie Huber added 10 points for Roncalli.

Karsyn Davis came off the bench to score sixth fourth-quarter points as the Cavaliers pulled away.

“Had some big spurts in the the fourth quarter when she got loose and was unguarded, and made a good post move to finish inside,” Larson said. “She stepped big tonight for us, too.”

Tara Nelson added 10 points to the Sisseton total.

Roncalli hosts Faulkton on Tuesday, before competing in the Hanson Classic in Mitchell one week from today.

ABERDEEN RONCALLI (6-1): McKenna O’Keefe 1 0-0 2, Rylee Voeller 2 1-4 7, Ava Hanson 6 8-10 25, Maddie Huber 2 6-6 10, Claire Crawford 2 0-0 4, Karsyn Davis 3 0-0 6. Totals 16-47 15-20 54.

SISSETON (3-4): Elliot Hortness 2 4-4 7, Tara Nelson 3 2-2 10, Krista Langager 3 5-9 11, Alexia Quinn 2 1-2 5, Ruby Rice 1 1-2 3, Saylor Langager 2 0-0 4, Fallon Hawkins 1 0-0 2. Totals 14-30 13-19 42.

Aberdeen Roncalli 15 25 40 54

Sisseton 3 18 34 42

3-point field goals – Voeller 2, Hanson 5; Nelson. Fouled out – Voeller. Total fouls – Aberdeen Roncalli 16; Sisseton 16. Rebounds – Aberdeen Roncalli 26 (Gabby Thomas 7); Sisseton 28 (K. Langager 12). Turnovers – Aberdeen Roncalli 18; Sisseton 27.