Aberdeen Christian overcame a three-point first quarter and fought off Northwestern in a tight Lake Region Conference boys’ basketball victory Thursday night at the Aberdeen Civic Arena.

The fourth-rated Knights remained unbeaten in LRC play with a 48-44 triumph in a game that went down to the closing seconds.

The Wildcats came out and jumped on Christian early, taking a 17-3 lead after the opening eight minutes.

“Definitely a slow start. I thought we came out pretty flat,” said Christian coach David Rohrbach. “You know they’re going to come out with energy. I just thought we didn’t match it, and then our shots weren’t going.”

That all changed quickly as Christian scored 14 unanswered points in about four minutes to tie the game in the middle of the second period.

“What really helped on the offensive end is we got out and ran,” Rohrbach said. “We got a couple of easy buckets. That kind of opened up the court, opened up the scoring for us a little bit.”

Still, the Wildcats did not fold and regained an advantage, leading 24-19 at the half.

Christian was able to open up a 34-27 lead early in the fourth quarter, but again Northwestern hung around and trailed just 38-37 before Malek Wieker made back-to-back three-point baskets to give the Knights a 44-37 advantage with 2:50 remaining.

“He’s definitely a gamer. He’s kind of been our closer all year,” Rohrbach said. “Those back-to-back threes were huge. You can just see it in his eyes that he wants the ball. The guys trust him with the ball.”

Again, Northwestern responded and eventually sliced the deficit down to 46-44 in the closing seconds before Wieker made a pair of foul shots to ice the victory.

Quintin Fischbach had a game-high 23 points, including seven three-point field goals to lead the Wildcats.

“They definitely had a good game plan. They played really hard,” Rohrbach said. “They have some kids that cause some matchup problems, just with taking people off the dribble and (Fischbach) is a real good shooter.”

Wieker finished with 22 points for the Knights, who won their ninth straight. Ethan Russell added 10 points.

Kaden Clark played a key role in the victory. The Christian center had six points, 10 rebounds, four assists, two blocks and three steals. He often spotted open teammates for high-percentage shots.

“Kaden is a fantastic passer. When things are kind of chaotic or we need a bucket, a lot of times we’ll tell the guys to get Kaden a touch and play off him because he’s such a good passer,” Rohrbach said. “He’s one of the best passing big men I’ve ever been around. He just has a knack for finding guys.”

Christian, 13-2 on the season, will try to wrap up the LRC title when it plays at Ipswich on Tuesday night. The Tigers knocked off the Knights at the Civic Arena last year.

“This is a good conference. Any time you play conference teams it’s always a little something more,” Rohrbach said. “It’s on the road and Ipswich is good, and they play defense. That’s one thing they do well. They get after it on defense. It’s a game they want and obviously our guys will have circled just from last year.”

NORTHWESTERN (5-9): Sam Groft 1 0-0 2, Jude Ortmeier 1 0-0 2, Chris Toennies 0 1-3 1, Rush Larson 3 0-0 8, Quintin Fischbach 7 2-4 23, Jamal Gallego 1 0-0 2, Nathan Melius 3 0-0 6. Totals 16 3-7 44.

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (13-2): Andrew Brennan 2 0-0 4, Jackson Isakson 2 2-2 6, Ethan Russell 4 1-2 10, Malek Wieker 8 2-4 22, Kaden Clark 3 0-0 6, Abe Holscher 0 0-2 0. Totals 19 5-10 48.

Northwestern 17 24 27 44

Aberdeen Christian 3 19 32 48

3-point field goals – Larson 2, Fischbach 7 ; Russell, Wieker 4. Fouled out – Larson. Total fouls – Northwestern 12; Aberdeen Christian 13. Rebounds – Aberdeen Christian 34 (Clark 10). Turnovers – Aberdeen Christian 12. Assists – Aberdeen Christian 9 (Clark 4). Blocked Shots – Aberdeen Christian 2 (Wieker 2, Clark 2). Steals – Aberdeen Christian 7 (Clark 3).