A strong second-half defensive performance gave the North Central Thunder the energy needed to secure a win at the Aberdeen Civic Arena Tuesday night. North Central defeated Aberdeen Christian 49-33 in a Lake Region Conference girls’ basketball game that saw the two teams separated by just eight points at the half. The Thunder cranked up their defense to take control in the final 16 minutes. “We kind of had to lock in and lock down on a couple of the girls that were hot on their end. I mean, that was one of the big focuses going into halftime was we got to shut them down,” said North Central coach Kaci Vander Vorst. “If our offense isn’t always falling, we gotta work 10 times harder on defense and our goal was to hold them.” One of the main scorers for Christian was Jolie Fogarty, who became a focal point for the Thunder in the second half after she put up 9 of the Knights’ 19 points in the first. “We tried a few girls on her, and it was pretty much deny her