Aberdeen Roncalli passed its board exam Monday night at Roncalli Gym.

The Cavaliers used their height advantage to collect 12 offensive rebounds, which led to 17 second-chance points to fuel a 54-34 non-conference boys’ basketball win over Sully Buttes.

“That’s something we were preaching, especially from last game where we gave up probably 12 rebounds and 17 second-chance points,” said Roncalli coach Dan Gallagher, referring to a setback against Leola-Frederick last week. “It was a turnaround and we knew that our size was probably going to help us out in that category.”

From size to physicality to experience, Roncalli exploited an advantage it had in the lane all game and the Chargers were unable to overcome.

“When we’ve been good on the glass we’ve been pretty good, and when we haven’t we’ve struggled a little bit,” said Sully Buttes coach Brian White. “Tonight was extremely physical and probably something most of our guys haven’t really dealt with. We’re a pretty young group, kind of cutting their teeth at the varsity level. We’re getting there, but this is something to learn from and hopefully we improve because of it.”

The Cavaliers overcame a brief deficit early in the game and led by eight points at the half. They took control with a 17-8 third-quarter surge thanks in part to eight second-chance points. Six different players scored in the period as Roncalli’s size took a toll.

“We talked a little (Sunday) about the little size advantage we had,” said Roncalli forward Keegan Stewart. “Their tallest guy is 6-3. We have Parker (Grieben) 6-5 and me 6-3, so we knew if we would be able to crash the boards then we could get them.”

Stewart finished with a game-high dozen rebounds to lead the board assault as Roncalli owned a 40-24 advantage on the glass.

“Me and Parker were just being aggressive going after our own shots,” Stewart said. “We got our own rebounds a few times, so that was a big part of it.”

Meanwhile, with a huge defensive presence focused on Sully Buttes standout Wesley Wittler, the Chargers found scoring tough to come by. The sophomore managed 11 points, but had to work hard to get them because of Roncalli’s box-and-one defense.

“I just try to tell my teammates to set some screens for me, because if they get me open, they’re going to get open because guys have to help on me,” Wittler said. “If they set a screen on me, their guy is going to try to help on me and maybe a back door or something will be wide open.”

While some players would get frustrated with all of the extra attention, Wittler looked on the bright side of the situation.

“This is a very positive thing. Roncalli is a really good team,” Wittler said. “They’re going to box-and-one me which gives me a lot of confidence in myself to try to go out there and make some plays, and it helps me as a person for later games in the season and especially the playoffs.”

Last season as a freshman, Wittler went off against the Cavaliers to the tune of 23 points. Roncalli was determined to not let that happen again.

“It was really good to get number 5 (Brody Weinmeister) back to help us out, too. Aiden (Fisher) we know is a phenomenal defender. We knew we could use him on him, but Aiden, we need in other ways too, so having 2 or 3 guys that we can use on Wittler with Brody coming back it was huge for us,” Gallagher said. “That was the game plan. We needed to take the ball out of his hands and see if other guys on their team could beat us. I thought we did a good job helping on him and just face guarding him too.”

Gavin Colson also scored 11 points for Sully Buttes, but no other player managed more than four.

White said the Chargers need to find ways to be able to take some of the scoring load off of Wittler.

“He’s a big part of what we do and will continue to be,” White said. “We’re going to have to find a way to play off of him a little bit and find some easy buckets, because of how many eyes and how many hands are on him.”

Maddox Miller scored 13 points to lead a balanced scoring attack for Roncalli. Stewart contributed 11, Fisher and Weinmeister each added eight, and Cade Shelton and Grieben each finished with seven.

Monday started a busy stretch of basketball for the Cavaliers, who moved to 3-4 on the season. Roncalli plays at Sisseton on Thursday and at Warner on Saturday.

“This one’s huge,” Stewart said of the victory. “We got two more games this week, three games next week and I think three games the week after that. We’ve got a lot of games coming up fast, so this was a good one to get some momentum going for us.”

SULLY BUTTES (2-3): Logan Severson 1 0-2 2, Wesley Wittler 4 2-2 11, Gavin Colson 3 4-4 11, Teghan Westphal 1 0-0 2, Eli Mercer 2 0-0 4, Preston Kinney 0 0-2 0, James Miles 2 0-0 4. Totals 13-48 6-10 34.

ABERDEEN RONCALLI (3-4): Maddox Miller 5 1-2 13, Caden Shelton 3 0-0 7, Keegan Stewart 4 3-4 11, Aiden Fisher 3 2-4 8, Parker Grieben 3 1-3 7, Brody Weinmeister 3 1-2 8. Totals 21-49 8-15 54.

Sully Buttes 6 15 23 34

Aberdeen Roncalli 13 23 40 54

3-point field goals – Wittler, Colson; Miller (2), Shelton, Weinmeister. Total fouls – Sully Buttes 14; Aberdeen Roncalli 16. Rebounds – Sully Buttes 26 (Wittler 8); Aberdeen Roncalli 40 (Stewart 12). Turnovers – Sully Buttes 14; Aberdeen Roncalli 18.