It was not the game they wanted to be in, but the Aberdeen Christian Knights still ended the season on a positive note Saturday afternoon.

After playing in the title contest a year ago, Christian found itself in the seventh-place game this year and made the most of its final opportunity in a 72-65 win over Freeman Academy-Marion during the State B Boys’ Basketball Tournament at Wachs Arena.

“You’re thankful to be here, you don’t want to ever take it for granted,” said Christian coach David Rohrbach, “but obviously we wanted to do a little better. It’s nice to end the season on a win.”

As has been the case many times this season, the Knights struggled out of the blocks and trailed by nine points in the opening quarter. The players had a message waiting for them from the coaches during a timeout.

“They just said the time is now. We’ve got nothing else after this,” said forward Ethan Russell. “Just leave it all out there and fight back.”

Christian responded to close out the second quarter. Trailing 26-17, the Knights went on a 12-1 run, capped by an offensive rebound and score by Jackson Isakson right before the horn to give Christian a 29-27 halftime lead.

From there, the Christian offense got rolling behind the shooting of Russell and Malek Wieker, and soon it was the Knights who owned a double-digit advantage.

“Once we started hitting shots it felt like we started playing a little bit like we have been all year,” Rohrbachs said. “It’s nice to see shots go in and us kind of get back into a little bit of a rhythm.”

From there, the Knights were able to play with the lead the rest of the way as Russell scored 19 points in the second half and Wieker had 13. The Bearcats did not go quietly though and eventually sliced the deficit down to five points, but by then there was less than 10 seconds remaining in the contest. FA-M had chances to inch even closer, but came up empty on a couple of crucial possessions in the final 35 seconds.

While seventh place was not what the Knights had in mind when the tourney started, Wieker put things into perspective.

“There’s 92 teams and we came out as one of the top eight,” he said. “We’ll take that.”

After struggling to shoot the ball the previous two games in the tournament, the Knights found creative ways to score against the Bearcats, including a circus shot by Russell who managed to put the ball through the hoop with his back to the basket while falling down.

“It’s weird how that works,” Russell said. “You just have to loosen up. You can’t think about the pressure. Just play ball.”

Quincy Blue topped Freeman Academy-Marion with 22 points, Connor Epp followed with 20 and Thalen Schroeder finished with 14 points and nine rebounds.

Wieker led all players with 27 points and added 10 rebounds and four assists. Russell had 21 points and Isakson 11.

Christian received a big boost off its bench led by Blake Rich with five points, including a three-pointer down the stretch to help keep the Knights in control.

“Our bench played a hecukva game today. They gave us great minutes,” Wieker said. “It’s really fun just to see everybody involved. That’s the best part of basketball.”

The Knights finished their season with a 21-5 record and plenty of motivation for next year as the squad returns all of its players.

“As I said to one of the coaches (Friday), the state championship loss last year really fueled me,” Wieker said, “but I think the outcome of this year is going to fuel me even more, so be ready for next year.”

FREEMAN ACADEMY-MARION (21-5): Dylan Johansen 1 1-2 1, Connor Epp 8 4-5 20, Donte Butler 1 0-0 3, Thalen Schroeder 5 3-7 14, Matthew Hagen 2 0-0 5, Quincy Blue 7 2-2 22. Totals 23-59 10-16 65.

ABERDEEN CHRISITAN (21-5): Andrew Brennan 1 0-0 2, Jackson Isakson 5 0-0 11, Ethan Russell 8 4-4 21, Malek Wieker 8 5-8 27, Kaden Clark 2 0-1 4, Blake Rich 2 0-0 5, Joey Johnson 1 0-0 2. Totals 27-60 9-13 72.

Freeman Academy-Marion 18 27 38 65

Aberdeen Christian 13 29 52 72 3-point field goals – Butler, Schroeder, Hagen, Blue 6; Isakson, Russell, Wieker 6, Rich. Total fouls – Freeman Academy-Marion 14; Aberdeen Christian 16. Rebounds – Freeman Academy-Marion 28 (Schroeder 9); Aberdeen Christian 44 (Wieker 10, Isakson 8). Assists – Freeman Academy-Marion 12 (Epp 5); Aberdeen Christian 14 (Brennan 5). Steals – Freeman Academy-Marion 9 (Butler 4, Schroeder 3); Aberdeen Christian 3.