WATERTOWN – After playing with a lead most of the first half, Aberdeen Christian was forced to play from behind in the second half and it eventually caught up with the Knights.

Playing in its first State B Girls’ Basketball Tournament in school history, Christian pushed second-seeded De Smet before falling 52-44 in the opening round Thursday night at the Watertown Civic Arena.

“We knew coming in Aberdeen Christian is a very good basketball team,” said De Smet coach Brendon Pitts. “They’re earned their way here to the state tournament. They had some impressive wins on the year. We knew it was going to be a battle.”

The Knights led 21-16 with 3:25 left in the second quarter. However, Christian managed just four points in the next nine minutes. By then, the Bulldogs had grabbed a 29-25 lead late in the third period.

De Smet had a hard time shaking the Knights, but never relinquished the lead after that.

Christian had a difficult time mustering perimeter offense, making just 2 of 16 three-point field goal attempts in the contest.

“We knew that that would bite us at some point,” said Christian coach Michael Rohrbach. “No matter who you play you have to be able to hit outside shots, because everybody is going to double and take away your first look.”

Kaylee Block hit Christian’s only three-pointer of the second half to cut the deficit to 37-36 with 4:50 left in the game, but De Smet’s Jada Burke answered with a three-pointer of her own moments later.

Christian center Mallory Miller scored her final basket of the game to cut the margin back to two, before De Smet center Kennadi Buccholz scored and drew a fourth foul on Miller.

Less than 30 seconds later, Miller fouled out with 2:55 remaining, leaving the floor with 19 points and 12 rebounds.

The Bulldogs then nursed the lead to the finish, but not without an anxious moment when Christian cut the deficit to 47-44 on a basket by Hanna Miller and then got the ball back with 45 seconds left. However, the Knights had a pair of turnovers down the stretch and De Smet was able to finish off the win.

Christian finished with 17 turnovers on the night.

“Turnovers have been an issue all year,” Rohrbach said. “You’re not going to win many games turning it over 17 times. We were really focusing on rebounding well and not turning it over. I thought we rebounded well. We just turned it over too much.”

The Bulldogs made an adjustment at halftime to help turn the momentum which led to a 34-23 second half burst.

“We made some adjustments at halftime,” Pitts said. “We did a little better job handling their post game in the second half and we got some things on the other end on the offensive side.”

Pitts said a big focus was on defending better in the lane, specifically trying to keep Mallory Miller off the boards.

“In the first half the backside help wasn’t there as much as I’d like to see. We weren’t boxing out as much I’d like to see. She got some second-chance opportunities,” Pitts said. “The second half I think we did a lot better job of eliminating that.”

Buccholz was a force all game, scoring a game-high 28 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Burke contributed 13 points.

Hanna Miller added 12 points and 14 rebounds for the Knights.

The Bulldogs, 23-1 on the season, will meet Faith in the semifinals at 7:45 tonight.

While Pitts said his team has to continue to play solid defense, he added, “We have to come ready to play. We can’t be scared to shoot and drive, and make things happen on the offensive side, too.”

Christian, 20-4 on the year, plays Wall in consolation round action at 1:45 this afternoon.

“It’s tough. It kind of takes the wind out of your sails to lose,” Rohrbach said. “Tomorrow will be a gut-check to see if we really want it. You still only have two more games for these seniors. The nice thing is they know when their season ends, so hopefully it will end on a positive note.”

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (20-4): Joy Rohrbach 2 0-1 4, Kaylee Block 1 0-0 3, Hanna Miller 5 2-5 12, Mallory Miller 9 0-2 19, Grace Kaiser 3 0-0 6. Totals 20-56 2-8 44.

De SMET (23-1): Jada Burke 4 4-4 13, Emma Albrecht 0 12- 1, Kennadi Buchholz 10 7-10 28, Camryn Schmidt 3 0-0 6, Hazel Luethmers 1 2-4 4. Totals 18-50 14-20 52.

Aberdeen Christian 13 21 29 44

De Smet 10 18 33 52

3-point field goals – Block, M. Miller; Burke, Buchholz. Fouled out – M. Miller, Kaiser, Chloe Bosma. Total fouls – Aberdeen Christian 17; De Smet 12. Rebounds – Aberdeen Christian 40 (H. Miller 14, M. Miller 12); De Smet 31 (Buchholz 11). Turnovers – Aberdeen Christian 17; De Smet 11. Steals – Aberdeen Christian 10; De Smet 15 (Albrecht 3, Buchholz 3).