Top-ranked Aberdeen Christian overcame a sluggish start with a strong finish on Senior Night at the Aberdeen Civic Arena Thursday night.

The Knights used a 23-2 third quarter to pull away from Langford Area in a 72-32 Lake Region Conference boys’ basketball victory.

That third-period surge came on the heels of scoring the final 11 points in the opening half to break a 24-24 tie.

The Knights opened the game on a 9-0 run and looked poised to pull away right from start. However, Langford Area hung around thanks to aggressive rebounding and second-chance opportunities, and cut the deficit to 17-12 to end the first quarter.

Christian head coach Matt Rohrbach noted that emotions played a part in the slow start that allowed Langford Area to climb back into the game.

“I definitely think emotions can definitely play a little part of that. We’ve just got to make sure that we’re bottling that up a little bit,” Rohrbach said. “Credit to Langford. They came out and hit some shots right away, and sometimes when you’re favored, you’re maybe not expecting that.”

Rohrbach also noted that his team needed to be more aggressive on the defensive end to help kickstart the offense.

“We’ve got to make sure that we are the aggressive team starting out,” Rohrbach said. “If we were a little bit more aggressive defensively I think that would’ve got out offense flowing a little bit quicker, but sometimes you’ve just got to take the way a game goes, and credit to Langford, they played well in the first half.”

The Knights continued to struggle to find their rhythm in the second quarter while the Lions clawed their way back with 12 second-quarter points. Kassen Keough scored eight and Jesse Keough added four as Langford Area eventually pulled even at 24-24. That’s when the Knights went on their 34-2 streak to take total control. Christian’s Ethan Russell, Malek Wieker, and Abe Holscher each cashed in a 3-pointer, and Jackson Isakson added a two-point basket for the final 11 points of the half.

Russell credited Langford Area’s aggressiveness as something the team was not prepared for.

“They crashed the boards hard. They’re a solid team. They’re a physical team and I guess they just boarded well, and they hit a couple of shots and we weren’t quite ready for that,” Russell said. “Coach Rohrbach wrote up some stuff at halftime and I thought we adjusted really well.”

The Knights adjusted very well with their dominant third quarter. Russell sparked the run with three baskets to start the pivotal period.

Coach Rohrbach said that his team communicated better in the second half, which helped to build the big lead.

“We talked about energy and communication in the locker room. I thought we were quiet in the first half and typically a quiet team is going to be a scared team,” Rohrbach said. “I just challenged our six seniors to make sure that when we are out there, we should be talking to everybody. We should be communicating from the backside, and I felt like we did that in the second half to kind of get us rolling.”

It was the final regular season home game for six seniors who have meant a lot to Coach Rohrbach and the Aberdeen Christian faithful.

“When you’re a senior and you’ve had the jersey on for the last few years, it’s weird when it can be your last couple of times, so there’s definitely some of those emotions,” Rohrbach said.

For Russell, who led Christian with 19 points in the win, the enjoyment of playing with his fellow seniors made the last regular season home game meaningful.

“We love playing together and we love playing in the Civic, so we just had to go out there and do it one last time,” Russell said. “We’re really looking to play together in the postseason, because we’re really enjoying playing together.”

Isakson, Wieker, and Ellis Russell each contributed nine points to the total for the Knights, while Kaden Clark had eight points.

Langford Area’s Kassen Keough finished with 15 points, while Jesse Keough added 13. The Lions (4-14) travel to Estelline/Hendricks on Saturday.

Before the Knights (17-2) can look ahead to the postseason, they travel to Groton on Friday, Feb. 24 for their season finale. Coach Rohrbach said the team needs to continue to do the little things and continue to improve.

“I think we’ve just got to be better at the little things,” Rohrbach said. “Just little things we’ve got to do a little bit better job of, making sure that we’re all on the same page, because if one person is not on the same page, then you give up open shots. If we can clean that up, we’ll be ready to go on Friday and in regions.”

LANGFORD AREA (4-14): Jesse Keough 4 5-6 13, Kassen Keough 6 0-0 15, Carter Block 0 2-4 2, Kalen Godel 1 0-0 2. Totals 11 7-10 32.

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (17-2): Andrew Brennan 1 1-2 3, Jackson Isakson 3 2-4 9, Ethan Russell 8 2-2 19, Malek Wieker 3 2-4 9, Kaden Clark 4 0-0 8, Abe Holscher 1 0-0 3, Konnar Furman 2 0-1 4, Becker Bosma 1 0-0 3, Ellis Russell 4 0-0 9, Joey Johnson 2 1-1 5. Totals 29 8-14 72.

Langford Area 12 24 26 32

Aberdeen Christian 17 35 58 72

3-pt field goals – K. Keough 3; Isakson, Ethan Russell, Wieker, Holscher, Bosma, Ellis Russell. Total fouls – Langford Area 12; Aberdeen Christian 9.