Aberdeen Central got off to a solid start, but Rapid City Central responded with a stronger finish Friday night at Golden Eagles Arena.

The Cobblers took control down the stretch to overcome a 23-point effort from Brendan Phillips in a 61-58 non-conference boys’ basketball victory.

Things looked good for the Golden Eagles early on as the squad played with confidence in its first game of the season.

“Well, obviously the first game, it’s good to have confidence and be confident and get to see some shots going in when your best player scores, and is hot,” said Golden Eagle head coach Brent Norberg. “That always gives everyone else confidence.”

That player who started off hot was Phillips, who scored 8 of the first 10 points of the contest, ending with 15 in the first half to stake the hosts to a 10-point lead.

“You know, we start off like that, firing on all cylinders,” Phillips said. “Starting off in the first is obviously ideal, being able to do that.”

It was a strong showing for the last first game for the senior, and showed the work that he has put in in the offseason has paid off.

“Well, that’s what I expect out of him. He’s worked incredibly hard on his body, to be strong, to be physical. His skill level, he’s a self-made player,” Norberg said. “He’s worked his tail off. He’s got good size, but everything else, he’s developed and he’s worked at it. … When he makes threes like he did, he’s going to be difficult to deal with for anybody, and we need that.”

Phillips shot 5-of-7 from 3-point range, and made two in the first quarter, one in the second, and two more in the fourth, the last with 41 seconds remaining to get the Golden Eagles back to a one-possession game.

“Well, we need to score, and you know, I was able to contribute,” Phillips said. “And being able to do that, we were able to kind of get some momentum and then we were close, but weren’t able to finish it out.”

Phillips wasn’t the only player that stood out for the Golden Eagles in the season opener. Turner Bergan came in off the bench and put up 14 points, 10 coming in the first half.

“Yeah, we needed another second scorer, really could’ve used a third, but he did a good job of getting some stuff at the rim for us,” said Norberg. “He made a three and finished some stuff, kind of off balance, and it looks awkward, but that’s what he does. He’s really good at finding the ball into his hand, and a nice easy finish. He did a nice job with that.”

The Golden Eagles led going into halftime 36-26, but a strong and persistent Cobbler defense proved to be tough for the Golden Eagles who committed 27 turnovers, a majority of them coming in the second half.

“Unfortunately, if we would have just took care of the ball the whole game, we’d have been in control and been comfortable. And we just didn’t, and credit to them. They pressed us, we didn’t handle it, and that was the difference in the game,” Norberg said. “With 27 turnovers, you just can’t win games. … We just didn’t play with the same confidence in the second half that we did in the first half.”

The Aberdeen players felt the pressure defense of their West River foe throughout the game.

“The pressure, when they were really close to us, you know. We weren’t ready for it, and we forced a lot of turnovers,” said Phillips. “So that’s something that we need to work on.”

Central hosts Rapid City Stevens at 1:30 this afternoon and the Golden Eagles know they will have to limit their turnovers.

“We gotta walk through (Saturday morning) and talk about it and kind of flush the turnover thing and get their confidence back and move on to the next opponent,” Norberg said. “We don’t have a lot of time to dwell on this. We got Stevens, who would be as good, if not better …  so, we’ll have to play better (Saturday).”

RAPID CITY CENTRAL (1-0): Junior Allen 4 1-3 9, Kaden Mathieu 4 1-1 9, Gilbert White 6 8-10 20, Julius Duran 4 3-5 11, Sean Smith 1 3-4 5, Preston Yellow 3 1-2 7. Totals 22 17-25 61

ABERDEEN CENTRAL (0-1): Michael Dutenhoffer 1 0-0 2, Brendan Phillips 7 4-5 23, Christian Palmer 2 0-0 4, Colby Dauwen 3 0-0 6, Jacob Weishaar 3 1-3 7, Turner Bergan 6 0-2 14, Kalen Larson 1 0-0 2. Totals 23 5-10 58

Rapid City Central 17 26 42 61

Aberdeen Central 18 36 44 58

3-point field goals – Phillips 5, Bergan 2. Total Fouls – Rapid City Central 16; Aberdeen Central 24. Rebounds – Rapid City Central 27 (Smith 6); Aberdeen Central 35 (Dauwen 9). Turnovers – Rapid City Central 13 (Allen 4); Aberdeen Central 27 (Dutenhoffer 8). Assists – Rapid City Central 3 (Duran, Smith, Yellow 1); Aberdeen Central 10 (Dutenhoffer 4, Dauwen 4). Steals – Rapid City Central 11 (Smith 5); Aberdeen Central 4 (Phillips 1, Palmer 1, Dauwen 1, Larson 1).