When trying to knock off an elite team, there is little margin for error.

While Aberdeen Central fought to the finish, the Golden Eagles couldn’t overcome a few breakdowns against second-rated Brandon Valley Saturday afternoon. The Lynx pulled away down the stretch in a 69-53 Eastern South Dakota Conference boys’ basketball win at Golden Eagles Arena.

“I love the way our guys keep fighting, keep playing, we just made too many critical errors,” said Central coach Brent Norberg, “and when you do that against a good team, they make you pay and that’s what Brandon did the whole game.”

Central gave up a few too many points in transition, a few too many offensive rebounds, and when combined it prevented the Golden Eagles from being able to knock off the Lynx.

“I thought going into the game if we could control them in the post, we could keep them maybe in the 50s, and then have a chance, maybe get to 60 and have a chance,” Norberg said, “but credit to them, they found other ways to score, and we gave up some easy stuff in transition, some runouts and they made some shots. But I thought Jack (Bertsch) and Weis (Jacob Weishaar) did a really good job on their post player, but then credit to them, they found other ways to score. They’re a very good team.”

Those miscues are correctable, according to Bertsch.

“It takes all of us on defense. We’re a solid defensive team, but just lapses,” Bertsch said. “I’ve got lapses there, too. We just got to clean up those little mistakes and we’ll be right there.”

Even with some of those lapses, Central’s effort allowed the Golden Eagles to remain within striking distance for the majority of the contest.

“They’re a good team and they just kept fighting,” said former Northern State standout and Brandon Valley coach Craig Nelson. “And you want to play teams like that.”

The Lynx outrebounded Central 37-24. That not only led to more shot attempts because of offensive rebounds, but also more points.

“If you give up offensive rebounds to good teams, they usually score,” Norberg said, “and a lot of times it’s a kickout 3 and that’s what happened.”

Rebounding is something that the Lynx have relied upon so far in a 9-1 start to the season.

“We’ve been a pretty good rebounding team,” Nelson said. “There’s some pretty good physicality and length and athleticsm there, and we have to make sure that’s something we do even better down the road.”

Bertsch said that the rebounding battle is not solely confined to play under the basket.

“I don’t know if it was in the paint,” Bertsch said. “All of us collectively need to just get to our guys and box out. I think that will solve that problem easily.”

Bertsch finished with a season-high eight points, some coming on mid-range jumpers.

“Coach says 15-footers are the hardest shots,” Bertsch said. “No one practices them, so I’ll practice them, I guess.”

Norberg would like to get Bertsch more involved in the offense to go along with the other solid elements of his game.

“We’ve been talking to him all year, he’s got to be a little more selfish. We’ve got to throw it to him more,” Norberg said. “He’s starting to look and be more comfortable and develop some more moves, and a variety of things to do. He plays really, really hard. He’s always good defensively. He’s always good on the glass. We’ve just got to get him the ball.”

Brendan Phillips led Central with 17 points, and Colby Dauwen contributed nine points and five assists.

Central, 2-8 on the season, plays host to Pierre on Tuesday before traveling to Sioux Falls Washington on Thursday.

“You just got to keep your kids believing they can win and our kids do. I think they trust each other and hopefully they continue to trust us and we’ll just continue to try to get better,” Norberg said. “I really think we can be a dangerous team. We’re not there yet, but we’re going to keep plugging away.”

BRANDON VALLEY (9-1): Mach Mayen 2 1-1 5, Landon Dulaney 9 2-2 20, Aiden Zarr 3 2-2 8, Briggs Knutson 1 0-0 3, Brayden Miller 3 1-2 10, Gus Scott 3 3-4 10, Austin Dowd 3 0-0 6, Lincoln McInerney 3 0-0 7. Totals 27-52 9-11 69.

ABERDEEN CENTRAL (2-8): Brendan Phillips 6 2-6 17, Luke Swanson 1 1-2 4, Colby Dauwen 4 0-0 9, Jacob Weishaar 2 0-0 5, Michael Dutenhoffer 2 0-0 5, Turner Bergan 1 1-2 3, Christian Palmer 1 0-0 2, Jack Bertsch 3 2-4 8. Totals 20-50 6-14 53.

Brandon Valley 12 33 53 69

Aberdeen Central 10 23 36 53

3-point field goals – Knutson, Miller 3, Scott, McInerney, Phillips 3, Swanson, Dauwen, Weishaar, Dutenhoffer. Total fouls – Brandon Valley 18; Aberdeen Central 15. Rebounds – Brandon Valley 37 (Dulaney 5, Dowd 5); Aberdeen Central 24 (Dauwen 4, Bergan 4). Turnovers – Brandon Valley 16; Aberdeen Central 12. Assists – Brandon Valley 9 (Dulaney 4, Knutson 3); Aberdeen Central 14 (Dauwen 5). Blocked Shots – Brandon Valley 4; Aberdeen Central 1. Steals – Brandon Valley 5 (Dulaney 3); Aberdeen Central 8 (Weishaar 2, Dutenhoffer 2, Bertsch 2).