FAULKTON – Aberdeen Roncalli held its fifth opponent to 35 points or less on the way to a 45-34 non-conference girls’ basketball win over Faulkton Tuesday night.

The top-rated Cavaliers improved to 7-0 with the victory.

While the defense was definitely good enough, it wasn’t necessarily what Roncalli strives for each time it steps on the court.

“I don’t know how well we defended tonight,” said Roncalli coach Derek Larson. “I thought we gave up offensive rebounds on the free throws, I thought we gave up some dribble drive to the rim, and then first-shot attempts aren’t that big of a deal, but then second and third-shot attempts and not boxing out. We defended well enough to win, but we didn’t defend the way we want to play.”

The Cavaliers took a lead it never lost in the opening minutes as Olivia Hanson scored six quick points. From there, it was a defensive battle for the rest of the half as Roncalli led 21-11 at the break.

The Trojans continued to hang around in the third quarter and trailed 26-18 before Roncalli took control. The Cavaliers went on a scoring surge that left them with a commanding 40-20 lead in the final period.

Madelyn Bragg scored 13 of her game-high 17 points in the second half to power the Roncalli offense. She also hauled down 14 rebounds.

Like it is has in many games already this season, Roncalli’s defense stymied another foe for five or six minutes to break open a game.

“That’s true we do that for five or six minutes, but we’d like to extend that maybe even a little bit longer,” Larson said. “We don’t want to be satisfied where we’re at. We want to continue to just get better on both ends of the floor.”

Faulkton went on a late scoring surge and cut the deficit in half, but it was too little, too late.

“Give them credit,” Larson said. “They played, especially defensively, the way they needed to play to be successful against us tonight.”

Hanson finished with 13 points and Morgan Fiedler added 11 for Roncalli.

Isabel Aesoph topped Faulkton with 12 points and 12 rebounds.

The Cavaliers, 7-0 on the season, travel to Groton for a Northeast Conference game on Friday.

While Larson noticed plenty of room for improvement following his team’s latest victory, he also understands there is plenty of basketball left this season.

“It’s a win on the road in January, Larson said. “As we told the girls, we don’t want to be peaking now, but we also want to be trending that way.”

ABERDEEN RONCALLI (7-0): Madelyn Bragg 7 3-6 17, Morgan Fiedler 4 2-3 11, Olivia Hanson 6 1-1 13, Ella Hanson 1 0-2 2, Ava Hanson 0 0-2 0, Maddie Huber 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 6-14 45.

FAULKTON: Isabel Aesoph 5 1-3 12, Shayna Heitmann 3 0-3 7, Carley Cotton 2 0-0 4, Teralyn Cramer 1 0-0 2, Ashly Senn 0 1-2 1, Paislee Martinmaas 2 0-1 4, Kelli Stoecker 0 4-4 4. Totals 13 6-13 34.

Aberdeen Roncalli 10 21 31 45

Faulkton 7 11 18 34

3-point field goals – Fiedler; Aesoph, Heitmann. Total fouls – Aberdeen Roncalli 12; Faulkton 14. Rebounds – Aberdeen Roncalli 32 (Bragg 14); Faulkton 39 (Aesoph 12). Turnovers – Aberdeen Roncalli 10; Faulkton 22. Assists – Aberdeen Roncalli 11 (Fiedler 6); Faulkton 7 (Cramer 3). Steals – Aberdeen Roncalli 11 (Fiedler 4); Faulkton 4.