“Our shooters were scoring and the shots they took were good shots in rhythm, and you can’t fault that,” said Rossville head coach Dave Mosson. “We tried to stay within what we do offensively and we weren’t going in there playing one-on-one and everybody trying to pad their stats.”

Rossville plays Tri-County in a semifinal Friday night, 59-54 victors over Carroll in its quarterfinal contest.

Faith (0-2) won this tourney last year but was no match for Rossville, which used a blistering 18-0 run – with three 3-pointers from junior Brandon Tonsoni – to lead 18-2 with three minutes left in the first quarter.

The Hornets (1-1) didn’t let up, stretching the lead to 42-13 with 3:51 left in the second quarter and, following a Faith basket, ended the half on an 8-0 run – with six consecutive points coming from junior Austin Miller – to lead 50-15 at intermission.

“The more you play, the more relaxed you are and the more confidence you gain as the season progresses,” Mosson said. “In a lot of respects, we took a step forward. It was a hard game to coach because your starters work hard in practice to get things done, and you try to control (the score) a little bit … I certainly didn’t want to embarrass them.”

Rossville was 36 of 62 from the field for the game (58 percent).

Rossville had four players in double figures, led by Tonsoni’s 23 points. Classmate Miller wasn’t too far behind with 18 points. The duo combined to shoot 17 of 25 from the field (68 percent) and 6 of 11 from 3-point land (55 percent).

“We’ve been working hard all summer on pull-ups and shooting threes,” Tonsoni said. “We’re just glad to see the hard work pay off and we’ll see how it goes from here.”

Senior Brad Myers and junior Austin Meyers came off the bench to score 12 and 10 points, respectively. Myers hit four 3-pointers for his career-high point total, and Meyers also led the Hornets with seven rebounds.

Senior James Baker led Rossville with eight assists – all in the first half. Junior Ethan Brenneman had a well-rounded game with 7 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals. Tonsoni chipped in four assists and three rebounds.

Senior Michael Gregorash finished in eight points and five rebounds.

Tuesday’s contest was much different from Saturday’s 55-50 loss to Western Boone, whose physicality proved to be a problem for the Hornets. That was non-existent from Faith Christian, which provided very little challenge defensively and let Rossville get up and down the court with relative ease.

“We felt we should’ve got that one (WeBo) but you can’t do anything about that now,” Tonsoni said. “You just got to move forward and we’re glad to have the night we were looking for.”

Faith hoisted up 28 3-point attempts, converting eight. Christian Anderson led the Eagles with 14 points while Wes Smeltzer and Jay Jung scored eight points apiece.

The 90 points scored by Rossville is the most since a 103-65 victory over Pioneer in the 2008-09 season.

This year’s Kitchen Classic has seen plenty of points scored. One night earlier, North White put up 110 points against Clinton Central. Rossville had 73 points at the end of the third quarter.

“We were here (Monday) night and saw North White score 110. We weren’t thinking about it, but would’ve been nice to reach 100,” Tonsoni said.

Rossville 90, Faith Christian 55

At Delphi

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Rossville 27 23 23 17 - 90

Faith Christian 10 5 15 25 - 55

Rossville (1-1) 90

Gregorash 3-9 2-2 8, Baker 3-3 0-0 6, Miller 8-11 0-1 18, Tonsoni 9-14 1-1 23, Brenneman 3-5 0-2 7, Myers 4-9 0-0 12, Meyers 3-6 4-4 10, Howard 1-4 0-0 2, Wilson 0-0 1-3 1, Beery 0-0 1-2 1, Cooper 1-1 0-0 2, Bordner 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 35-62 9-15 90.

Faith Christian (0-2) 55

Smeltzer 2-6 2-2 8, Kim 0-0 0-0 0, Jung 3-7 2-2 8, Heusinger 1-2 0-0 2, Sandry 3-4 1-2 7, Anderson 5-14 0-0 14, Wischmeier 1-1 1-2 3, Ford 1-7 3-4 5, Grass 3-7 0-0 8, Peter 0-0 0-0 0, Wilson 0-0 0-0 0, Overly 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 19-48 9-12 55.

3-point field goals: RV 9-21 (Myers 4-9, Tonsoni 4-7, Miller 2-4, Brenneman 1-1), FC 8-28 (Anderson 4-11, Smeltzer 2-5, Grass 2-6, Jung 0-3, Heusinger 0-1, Ford 0-2). Rebounds: 29 (Meyers 7), FC 29 (Sandry 7). Assists: RV 25 (Baker 8), FC 6 (Jung 3). Steals: RV 10 (Brenneman 4), RV 7 (Ford 3). Blocks: RV 0, FC 1 (Jung 1). Turnovers: RV 10, FC 26. Total foul: RV 11, FC 16.

PHIL FRIEND/pfriend@ftimes.com

Brenneman

Rossville junior Ethan Brenneman rises up for a jumper in Tuesday’s Indiana Kitchen Basketball Classic contest against Faith Christian.

PHIL FRIEND/pfriend@ftimes.com

Baker

Rossville senior James Baker had eight assists in the Hornets’ 90-55 victory over Faith Christian on Tuesday.