Pierre was able to use its length out front to help prevent the Aberdeen Central Golden Eagles from using their height inside Tuesday night.

The Governors hounded the ball on the perimeter, made five 3-pointers, and picked up a 57-47 Eastern South Dakota Conference girls’ basketball victory at Golden Eagles Arena.

The plan of attack was keep the ball out of the lane, where Central owned a decided height advantage. Pierre was able to execute that strategy throughout much of the contest.

“We knew going in that once the ball goes inside, there’s not much you can do except hope and pray,” said Pierre coach Kirk Beebout. “Obviously, our focus was not to let it go there in the first place, because it just leads to points for them or fouls for us.”

That’s exactly what happened in the early stages of the contest as Central center Taryn Hermansen scored seven first-quarter points and the Governors got in foul trouble putting the Eagles into the bonus halfway through the period.

However, the Pierre guards soon began to take a toll on both ends of the floor. Sharp shooting Lennix DuPris showed a sign of things to come with eight points and a pair of assists in the first quarter as the visitors opened a seven-point lead. On the other end of the floor, the Governors used their length out front to make those entry passes to Hermansen a tough task.

“It’s frustrating. Our guards are really having a hard time getting their eyes up to the basket with that pressure coming at them. We knew going into the season that was going to be a challenge,” said Central coach Mikayla Arechigo. “People talk about our bigs and our size on the inside. Teams have kind of figured out that our Achilles heel a little bit is our size on the perimeter. It makes it tough when you have short guards going up against that extra length on the perimeter.”

Pierre cranked up the defensive pressure even more in the second half to break the game open, allowing Central just five points in the third quarter.

“We work really hard on our defense,” Beebout said. “We’ve got some guards that really get after it, so the girls set the tone that way and kind of sparked us.”

The Eagles had a tough time connecting from the outside until late in the contest, so Pierre was able to surround Hermansen with multiple defenders nearly every time she touched the ball.

“We’ve talked a lot about trying to get some of those looks and being aggressive, but it seems like there’s a lot of times when we’re picking the wrong opportunities to be aggressive,” Arechigo said, “dribbling to the corner and not necessarily waiting until we have a chance to reverse the ball to be aggressive once the defense has had to make a rotation.”

However, the Eagles never quit, continually chipping away at a 19-point deficit to eventually close it down to the final margin of difference.

“We never gave up and I think that’s something we just have to take into the next of our games,” Hermansen said. “It doesn’t matter if you lose, but if you give up, it’s not OK. We just have to keep going.”

Hermansen finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Eagles.

Meanwhile, DuPris had a monster game for the Governors. The niece of legendary basketball standout Terry DuPris, finished with 26 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Pierre improved to 8-3 with the victory.

“It was a big win for us,” Beebout said. “Anytime you go on the road, and Aberdeen, I’ve got a lot of respect for them, coaching staff, they do a great job, so it was a big win for us.”

Central suffered its third straight setback, all against quality opponents who are either rated or receiving votes in this week’s poll.

“Right now, we just need to keep building,” Hermansen said. “We can’t look back at these last couple of  losses that we’ve had.”

The Eagles now have a layoff before traveling to Harrisburg on Friday, Feb. 2 for another ESD contest.

“I’m really excited to play Harrisburg,” Hermansen said. “My cousin plays on that team, so it’s always one of my favorite games of the year.”

The Eagles plan to use their break to get back on track as they head into the final half of the season.

“We talked about the importance of making sure we use this stretch to get better and not plateau or decline,” Arechigo said, “so hopefully after the break we are where we need to be, to be a little bit more competitive against some of these top teams.”

PIERRE (8-3): Aleise Christopherson 1 1-2 3, Lennix DuPris 8 6-6 26, Ryann Barry 2 2-2 7, Reese Terwilliger 4 1-2 9, Gracelyn Taylor 1 0-0 2. Totals 16-39 10-12 47.

ABERDEEN CENTRAL (8-4): Ayrlie Waldo 1 1-2 3, Madison Miller 1 0-0 2, Caydi Withers 0 1-2 1, Lauryn Burckhard 2 2-6 6, Taryn Hermansen 6 4-7 16, Kenadi Withers 1 0-0 2, Emma Dohrer 10-0 2, Kaylee Donat 2 0-0 5. Totals 14-36 8-17 37.

Pierre 19 26 40 47

Aberdeen Central 12 18 23 37

3-point field goals – Dupris (4), Barry; Donat. Fouled out – Terwilliger. Total fouls – Pierre 19; Aberdeen Central 9. Rebounds – Aberdeen Central 18 (Dupris 5); Aberdeen Central 30 (Hermansen 10). Turnovers – Pierre 15; Aberdeen Central 22. Assists – Pierre 10 (Christopherson 4, Dupris 3); Aberdeen Central 9 (Waldo 4, Ava Yeske 3). Blocked Shots – Pierre 3; Aberdeen Central 4. Steals – Pierre 12 (Dupris 3, Terwilliger 3); Aberdeen Central 5.