Aberdeen Christian had a size advantage on paper, and the Knights exploited that on the court Tuesday night.

Christian repeatedly worked the ball inside for high-percentage shots to claim a 52-37 Lake Region Conference boys’ basketball win over Faulkton at the Aberdeen Civic Arena.

“We have drilled it home about as good as we can in the past week, we are not 3-point shooters,” said Knights coach Aaron Moeller. “We can shoot a few, but we have to use our size. The entire starting five is 6-3 or taller. Teams see that, but we’re not taking advantage of that, and I felt like tonight was the first time we took advantage of our size.”

The Trojans had no answer for that change in philosophy as Christian had a height advantage at every position on the floor.

“They must have been working on stuff, because any film I watched they were launching a lot of 3’s,” said Faulkton coach Kyle Erdahl. “You can see why they’re trying to get it inside when they’ve got 6-6, 6-5, 6-4, 6-3. They might as well.”

That length and size not only served Christian well on offense, it totally changed the game on the other end of the floor. Brooks Jett, a 6-foot-3 freshman, helped to slow down Faulkton standout Layne Cotton to prevent the Faulkton offense from getting on track.

“It’s hard to stay in front of him, because you have to contest his shot, but he can take you on the dribble,” Jett said. “He’ll go right past you if you let him.”

On the rare occasions when Cotton was able to get past Jett, the other Knights were right on the spot to prevent him from getting open looks.

“We set the double a lot to help take that away so he couldn’t score,” Jett said.

Erdahl said that Cotton has seen his share of special defenses before, but this time it was a bit different.

“Layne’s faced double teams and face guarding all year,” Erdahl said, “they’ve just never been that big and athletic. That’s kind of tough.”

As a result, Cotton was held to a season-low nine points as the Knights rose to the challenge set before them.

“That’s our best game of the season and we did it against a quality opponent. Faulkton is a good ball team. They’re well-coached. They’ve got a great player in Layne Cotton,” Moeller said. “You’re not going to stop that kid, but I felt like we slowed him down a little bit. Brooks Jett, starting his first varsity game as a freshman, I said he’s your guy, and Brooks I felt like really stepped up to the plate.”

With Cotton bottled up, Faulkton was forced to have other players step up. One of those was Spencer Melius, who scored nine third-quarter points to help keep the Trojans within striking distance.

“I’m starting to find confidence now,” Melius said. “I haven’t really had that throughout the season, but I’m starting to get there. I felt that coming out.”

Melius led Faulkton with 11 points. Gian DiMaria, like Cotton, also finished with nine points.

Faulkton, 7-3, hosts once-beaten Ipswich on Friday.

“We can work on our defense, and boxing out mainly, and finding the open shots, finding someone that’s open because when they double Layne, it’s kind of hard,” Melius said. “We have to figure out who can score and move.”

Joey Johnson powered Christian with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Konnar Furman contributed 11 points. Becker Bosma and Jett each finished with eight.

The win was a big one for Christian, which improved to 2-4 on the season. The Knights host Waubay-Summit on Thursday at the Civic Arena.

“I think for sure we can build on this,” Jett said. “We’re young and we just have to get things rolling.”

FAULKTON (7-3): Gian DiMaria 4 0-0 9, Spencer Melius 5 0-0 11, Charlie Deiter 2 0-2 4, Layne Cotton 3 2-4 9, Trey Machtemes 1 1-2 4. Totals 15-57 3-8 37.

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (2-4): Ellis Russell 1 0-0 2, Becker Bosma 3 2-4 8, Konnar Furman 5 1-4 11, Brooks Jett 4 0-2 8, Joey Johnson 8 3-4 19, Luke Kaiser 2 0-0 4. Totals 23-48 6-14 52.

Faulkton 9 14 27 37

Aberdeen Christian 15 32 42 52

3-point field goals – DiMaria, Melius, Cotton, Machtemes. Total fouls – Faulkton 13; Aberdeen Christian 13. Rebounds – Faulkton 29 (Cotton 7, Melius 6, Deiter 6); Aberdeen Christian 35 (Johnson 12). Turnovers – Faulkton 12; Aberdeen Christian 16. Assists – Faulkton 7 (Cotton 3); Aberdeen Christian 16 (Russell 4, Bosma 4, Furman 3, Johnson 3). Steals – Faulkton 10 (DiMaria 3); Aberdeen Christian 7.