It was a mixed bag for the Aberdeen Roncalli boys’ basketball program Friday night.

On one hand, it was a win. On the other, it wasn’t much for style points.

The Cavaliers out-dueled a persistent Dupree squad playing its second game in as many days, claiming a 56-46 victory over the Tigers in a non-conference throwdown.

From the opening tip, the contest bore some resemblance to a CrossFit event, with Dupree pushing the pace both offensively and defensively and the Cavaliers, for their part, reciprocating.

“That’s our style,” said Dupree coach Mike Busch. “We like to get up and press because we know we don’t have the size on the back end, so we have to create some turnovers. And then create a bucket out of that.”

The TIgers did plenty in terms of disrupting Roncalli’s offense, playing fast and physical with their full-court press. The Cavaliers reciprocated with a strong interior defense that pushed the Dupree offense to the perimeter in the half-court setting.

“We knew it was going to be fast,” said Roncalli coach Dan Gallagher. “That’s kind of their style. It’s impressive, because they don’t go very deep off the bench. Those guys play a lot of minutes. We were hoping we’d handle the ball a little better.”

Turnovers did, in fact, prove to nearly be Roncalli’s undoing, particularly in the fourth quarter when a string of Cavalier miscues led to easy buckets in transition for Dupree.

“Fourth quarter they had a big run where we turned the ball over so many times,” said Roncalli senior Aiden Fisher. “Coach Gallagher just preaches, ‘Get the next play. Who cares about the ones in the past? Get the next one and move on.’ ”

That early fourth-quarter run – with the pace as frenetic in the final stanza as it was in the first – cut the Cavalier lead to just one point at 44-43 with 2:45 to play.

Roncalli, however, was able to slow the pace just enough to run its offense through the interior duo of Cam Olson and Parker Grieben, who scored on three straight possessions to give the Cavaliers some breathing room.

“Towards the end of the game when things were getting dicey, it was about slowing it down, finding the right shot, not forcing the issue, just finding the right shot and going from there,” Gallagher said. “I thought our guys did a good job at the end maintaining the basketball and maintaining possessions. That gave us the cushion we needed.”

But it still wasn’t the door slam the Cavaliers were looking for. Tre White Wolf hit a pull-up three from well beyond the arc to slice a seven-point Roncalli lead to four with 32 seconds yet to go.

“Our kids don’t quit,” Busch said. “We battled back, and we thought we had a chance down the stretch. That’s all you can ask for.”

Fisher, Sam Franks and Parker Grieben then made enough free throws down the stretch to put the contest away.

And getting that win felt pretty good, Fisher said.

“It was huge,” he said. “We knew Dupree was pretty good. We didn’t play our best basketball but we came out with the win, which was very big on our part, especially seeding-wise.”

With just a handful of games left on the docket ahead of postseason play, all wins are big for Gallagher.

“It should give us confidence, because we were nowhere near our best offensively, and our guys recognize it, but we were still able to come out on top against a really solid Dupree team,” Gallagher said. “It’s something to be proud of, not satisfied with, because we still want to continue to get better.”

Fisher had 14 points to lead the way offensively for the Cavaliers. Sam Franks and Olson notched 10 points apiece, while Brody Weinmeister had nine.

Despite the loss – just the sixth of the season for Dupree – Busch said his squad still reaped benefits from Friday’s contest.

“We came to a hard place to play,” Busch said. “It’s on the road, it’s three hours away and it’s a good NEC team. .. We’re trying to get ready for tournament time ourselves, and I thought it was a really good February matchup for us.”

White Wolf finished with 19 points for the Tigers. Braydon Terveen-Smith added a dozen.

Roncalli, now 7-10 on the season, breaks a four-game skid with Friday’s victory. The Cavaliers will host Tiospa Zina Monday before heading to Deuel on Thursday.

DUPREE (12-6): Tre White Wolf 5 7-8 19, Spencer Olsen 2 0-0 4, Cruz Birkeland 1 1-2 3, Braydon Terveen-Smith 6 0-3 12, Roper Eaton 2 0-0 4, Noah Little Wounded 1 0-1 2, Traden Meeks 1 0-0 2. Totals 18 8-14 46.

ABERDEEN RONCALLI (7-10): Jesse Hernandez 2 0-0 6, Aiden Fisher 5 1-4 14, Sam Franks 4 2-2 10, Brody Weinmeister 4 0-0 9, Parker Grieben 1 5-8 7, Cam Olson 5 0-1 10. Totals 22 8-15 56.

Dupree 8 19 29 46

Aberdeen Roncalli 10 27 36 56

3-point field goals – White Wolf 2; Hernandez 2, Fisher, Weinmeister. Fouled out – Terveen-Smiith, Eaton. Total fouls – Dupree 17; Aberdeen Roncalli 13.