A team known for its suffocating defense put on an offensive show Friday night.

Aberdeen Roncalli scored a season-high in points, while still playing its trademark stout defense on the way to a 67-22 Northeast Conference girls’ basketball win over Britton-Hecla at Roncalli Gym.

The Cavaliers put up 52 points in the opening half, 14 more than they scored in their previous entire game to break things open against the Braves. Seven different Roncalli players scored in the opening half barrage.

“Fifty-two in the first half. I’ll take that every day. We scored 38 in our last game,” said Cavaliers coach Derek Larson. “Every night it seems like it’s someone different. We haven’t had the same person be our top scorer every single night which is nice. Makes scouting us a little more difficult when teams have to guard all five spots.”

Included in the stellar opening half-point total were two buzzer-beaters by senior McKenna O’Keefe, one to finish off each quarter.

“I just did not expect that to go in,” O’Keefe said of her first last-second shot, “and I saw it going in and I was like ‘Oh that felt good.’”

Roncalli scored 29 points in the first period before adding 23 more in the second.

Of course, Roncalli’s defense remained a factor as well as the Cavaliers produced their second-lowest point since their opening game of the season.

“We played against a great defensive team,” said Britton-Hecla coach Terry Nelson. “And that’s just how I told them what was gonna happen.”

Roncalli came out with a full-court press and created turnovers that led to points, and ended up switching into a half-court defense, which produced much of the same outcome.

“Again, we had a lot of steals, especially even in the half court,” Larson said. “After we backed off and only played half court, I thought our defense was still solid.”

O’Keefe helped to kickstart the Cavaliers’ offense with a 10-point first quarter, finishing with 15 points on the night.

“It felt good. They were falling, so I just kept shooting,” O’Keefe said. “It was something I needed to do since I haven’t been scoring much in the last games.”

Ava Hanson did not score for nearly the first nine minutes of the game and then produced 10 straight points over the course of two minutes.

“Well, she’s a good basketball player, you know. I mean, she’s been around for a long time putting up a lot of points,” Larson said. “Second quarter, kind of goes off a little bit and just shoots with confidence again. I don’t think she gets super rattled when she doesn’t score. I thought she just kind of played her game.”

The second quarter closed out with the second buzzer beater from O’Keefe and the hometown crowd erupted.

“It was very loud tonight, which I feel like when we have larger crowds, we play better because of the intensity and the atmosphere is way better,” O’Keefe said.

Heather Storbakken topped the Braves with 11 points.

Hanson ended up leading Roncalli with 17 points. Gabby Thomas added 10, and Elyanna Roach finished with eight, including all six of the team’s points in the final period.

The Cavaliers, 10-2 on the season and still unbeaten in NEC play, will host Tiospa Zina on Monday in a game that was postponed from last week. Britton-Hecla is back on the road taking on Sisseton Tuesday night.

BRITTON-HECLA (3-10): Heather Storbakken 5 1-2 11, Mallory Grope 2 0-0 4, Maddie Micko 0 1-2 1, Chellon Pruitt 3 0-0 6. Totals 10 2-4 22.

ABERDEEN RONCALLI (10-2): McKenna O’Keefe 5 2-2 15, Maddie Huber 2 3-4 7, Claire Crawford 1 0-0 2, Rylee Voeller 3 0-0 7, Ava Hanson 7 1-1 17, Gabby Thomas 5 0-0 10, Morgan Helms 0 1-2 1, Elyanna Roach 3 2-3 8. Totals 26 9-12 67.

Britton-Hecla 6 15 16 22

Aberdeen Roncalli 23 52 61 67

3-point field goals- O’Keefe 3, Voeller, Hanson 2. Fouled out – Britton-Hecla, RaeAnn Hagenson. Total fouls – Britton-Hecla 15; Aberdeen Roncalli 9.