WARNER – Aberdeen Christian held its own for a while, but eventually had its season come to an end on Tuesday night.

The Knights fell to top-seeded Warner 70-35 in a Region 1B girls’ basketball quarterfinal game that saw Christian fight hard in the opening half.

Warner built a 14-4 first-quarter lead, but the Knights managed to equal the Monarchs scoring efforts in the second quarter as both squads scored 17 points in the period. Despite being down 31-21 at halftime, Knights coach Cristian Martinez was pleased with his team’s first-half performance.

“I think it was a great first half,” Martinez said. “We tried to match as much as possible.”

Christian came out of the halftime locker room by scoring the first four points of the second half, cutting the deficit down to six. However, Warner was able to pull away, using a strong defense to fuel the victory.

“In the third, we were able to start 4-0,” Martinez said, “but they started taking over with their defense and we couldn’t respond like we wanted.”

Warner was led by Ava Nilsson with 21 points, while Kyra Marcuson had 15 and Lauren Marcuson finished with 10. Sophia Hoeft added eight to the total.

The Monarchs (19-2) will host Britton-Hecla on Thursday in the Region 1B semifinals.

Chloe Holt led the Knights with 13 points, while Chloe Bosma and Payton Skarin each had eight.

Christian ended its season at 3-19 and will graduate four seniors from its roster, including Holt, Bosma, Sophia Fogarty, and Bailey Hunstad. Martinez expressed how proud he was of the team and how much he will miss the seniors.

“Very proud of this team,” Martinez said. “Sad moment knowing four of them are not going to be on the roster next year.”

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (3-19): Payton Skarin 2 4-5 8, Jolie Fogarty 1 0-0 3, Sophia Fogarty 1 0-0 3, Chloe Holt 6 0-0 13, Chloe Bosma 4 0-2 8. Totals 14 4-7 35.

WARNER (19-2): Kyra Marcuson 5 2-4 15, Ava Nilsson 10 1-2 21, Kyleigh Schopp 3 0-0 6, Sophia Hoeft 3 0-0 8, Lauren Marcuson 5 0-2 10, Addy Heinrich 1 0-0 2, Stacia Carda 2 0-0 4, Jordyn Jensen 2 0-0 4. Totals 31 3-8 70.

Aberdeen Christian 4 21 28 35

Warner 14 31 56 70

3-point field goals – J. Fogarty, S. Fogarty, Holt; K. Marcuson (3), Hoeft (2). Total fouls – Aberdeen Christian 5; Warner 7.