The Rugby High School girls basketball team played a strong first half in topping Langdon 65-51 in its season opener.

Panthers head coach Jen Brossart said her team used familiarity to jump out early on the Cardinals.

Rugby led 31-16 at halftime but was outscored by a point by Langdon in the second half.

“I think the first half was a testament to a new coach and system for them and it was old hat for us,” she said. “The second half was more a tell-tale sign of how close the teams are.”

Aubrey Hovland led all scorers with 23 points on 9 of 14 shooting from the field.

Freshman post player Taylor Wangerin added 10 points and 12 rebounds and Shea Heidlebaugh added 10 points and added five assists.

Madi Hart led the Cardinals with 17 points.

Brossart said the team still didn’t have its legs, which may have affected the Panthers second-half performance.

“We tried to play an up-tempo game and we aren’t quite in shape,” she said. “We gave up a lot of easy transition buckets. That’s something we have turn around so we can start taking those away. Some of the girls got a little tired and were just flat-footed.”

Rugby was solid on defense, holding the Cardinals to 33 percent shooting on 67 attempts.

With nine players in the scoring column, Brossart said she was also happy with the team’s offensive balance.

“I was happy with the even scoring,” she said. “It’s nice to see we can go that deep on the bench. All and all, for the first game, I was happy with putting up 65 and disappointed with giving up 51.”

The Panthers will get plenty of action from Dec. 20-22 when they play in the CNDC Tournament in Harvey.

With Rolla, Benson County and TGU competing in the tournament, Brossart is expecting to see some good competition, starting with Drake-Anamoose in the tournament opener.

“The CNDC has a lot of good quality teams this year, as good as there has been in the last few years.”