Aberdeen Christian used its size to its advantage and it led to a victory on Saturday afternoon.

The Knights pulled away from Sully Buttes for a 78-54 non-conference boys’ basketball win at the Christian Gym. It was the tenth consecutive win for Aberdeen Christian.

Christian coach Aaron Moeller said the goal entering the contest was to wear the Chargers out by using size, something the Knights have tried to do for most of the season.

“(With) the style we play, we’re a second half team, and the reason for that is we have a lot of size,” Moeller said. “It’s kind of like an offensive line; they lean on you, and they lean on you, and they lean on you, and that’s kind of our philosophy. We just keep banging on you, pounding the ball inside and eventually, I think we wear teams out. Over time, I feel like our size starts to matter.”

It was a first half where both teams struggled to find consistency on offense. Knights senior Joey Johnson said the team was not sticking to the game plan early on.

“We were making dumb decisions, not passing the ball fast,” Johnson said. “Everything just had to move fast, but once we did that, we really kind of got things going.”

However, Aberdeen Christian found success by relying heavily on Johnson, who provided 12 first-half points, while collecting multiple rebounds, giving the Knights several second-chance opportunities.

“We knew that we had an obvious pretty big size advantage, so the whole idea was just to get it down low,” Johnson said. “My teammates were able to move the ball well and get me in good positions to score, so it was a lot of my teammates working hard for me.”

Despite giving up points down low, Sully Buttes head coach Brian White was pleased with how his team played in the first half.

“The first half we played pretty well defensively and I thought we got some stuff done,” White said. “We rebounded pretty well; that was kind of the key to our first half.”

Meanwhile, the Chargers were struggling to get their top scorer Wesley Wittler on track, as Christian used a diamond-and-one defense on the sophomore guard to limit his shot opportunities. Wittler said it was difficult to get open looks at the basket against the Knights defense.

“It was pretty difficult. They’re really lengthy, really long,” Wittler said. “I’m pretty short, so it’s kind of tough for me to shoot shots because if I know that his hand is going to go three feet over the top of my head, then it’s hard for me to get open.”

Moeller gave credit to Konnar Furman and Luke Kaiser for limiting Wittler’s shot opportunities.

“It doesn’t show up in the stat line, but what they do defensively for us is really the difference in the game,” Moeller said. “Because one-on-one in a straight man-to-man situation, I don’t know if we’ve got the guys to defend Wittler, but with a little bit of zone in combination with that one guy that chasing him around, Konnar Furman and Luke Kaiser did a great job of keeping him under control.”

Aberdeen Christian held a 16-12 lead after the first quarter and extended its lead to 30-23 at halftime, but it was the third quarter where the Knights pulled away, outscoring the Chargers 25-16 to take a 55-39 lead into the final period. White said the difference in the second half was rebounding.

“The biggest thing was just in the second half we did not rebound well enough to win,” White said. “I thought we defended, we forced some jump shots, some balls came off the rim, but we just couldn’t come down with a rebound.”

Johnson continued to lead the way for the Knights, working to both score and rebound as he finished with a game-high 34 points and 12 rebounds.

“We definitely needed to just move the ball faster and that was a big emphasis,” Johnson said. “Just moving the ball, swinging it around and then trying to get those looks down low.”

Wittler said the Chargers did all they could to limit the Knights touches down low, but found the task difficult against the much taller Aberdeen Christian team.

“It was hard because if we’re trying to steal and stuff, especially if they’re 6-foot-3 and I’m 5-foot-10, they can just skip it over the top of my head all day long,” Wittler said. “We just tried helping down in the post, trying to dig it out every time.”

Wittler finished the game with 12 points, while Trever Marshall also had 12 points. Gavin Colson led the Chargers with 22 points. Sully Buttes (6-10) will host Sunshine Bible Academy on Tuesday and Faulkton on Thursday.

White said the team will look to continue to improve as they head down the final stretch of the season.

“We’ll just show up ready to roll and we’re going to keep trying to get better,” White said.

Furman and Becker Bosma each contributed 13 points for Aberdeen Christian (11-4), which will host Hitchcock-Tulare on Monday before traveling to Langford Area on Tuesday.

Moeller said both games will be key as the postseason nears.

“The script doesn’t change,” Moeller said. “We have to win those two games and continue to march up the polls and set ourselves up for the postseason.”

SULLY BUTTES (6-10): Logan Severson 0 1-2 1, Trever Marshall 4 0-0 12, Wesley Wittler 4 4-8 12, Gavin Colson 9 1-2 22, Eli Mercer 0 1-2 1, Teghan Westphal 2 0-0 5, Easton Moore 0 1-2 1. Totals 19 8-16 54.

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (11-4): Ellis Russell 1 0-0 3, Becker Bosma 4 2-2 13, Konnar Furman 5 3-5 13, Brooks Jett 3 0-0 6, Joey Johnson 13 7-7 34, Jett Johnson 1 0-0 3, Grady Jett 1 0-0 3, Luke Kaiser 1 0-0 3. Totals 29 12-14 78.

Sully Buttes 12 23 39 54

Aberdeen Christian 16 30 55 78 3-point field goals – Marshall (4), Colson (3), Westphal; Bosma (3), Russell, Joey Johnson, Jett Johnson, G. Jett, Luke Kaiser. Total fouls – Sully Buttes 12; Aberdeen Christian 12. Rebounds – Sully Buttes 21 (Severson 6, Colson 6); Aberdeen Christian 33 (Joey Johnson 12, Bosma 8). Turnovers – Sully Buttes 11; Aberdeen Christian 12. Assists – Aberdeen Christian 16 (Russell 4, Bosma 3, Furman 3, Joey Johnson 3). Blocks – Aberdeen Christian 5.