Basketball is all about matchups, and Groton won every one of those against Aberdeen Christian Friday night.

The Tigers used their length, athleticism and balance to power to a 58-28 non-conference boys’ basketball win at the Aberdeen Civic Arena in the final regular-season game for both squads.

“They’re a very quality ball club, obviously,” said Christian coach Matt Rohrbach. “They’re well coached, they have everything you need to be a really good basketball team. They have size, and quickness, and length, and athleticism.”

As a result, Groton was able to hold the Knights to a season-low in points on the way to the victory.

“I was really happy with our effort,” said Groton coach Brian Dolan.

The Tigers thought about using multiple defenses, but really didn’t need to.

“That was kind of what we wanted to do,” Dolan said. “We wanted to mix up man and zone. I would have gone to zone earlier, but I thought our man defense was doing well.”

Christian managed only one double-digit quarter as the Tigers took away one option after another for the Knights. While Brooks Jett managed 13 points, the rest of the team combined for just 15 total.

“We knew (Jett) was going to get his, but when (Ethan Biel) came in, we faced guarded him. We’re not going to let him see one go through the hoop, because he can hit 3-5 like that, don’t let him get off. (Dylan Hofer) he can shoot it,” Dolan said. “We just did our base defense. We didn’t switch a lot tonight. We wanted to make them score over us. We felt like if we could rebound the ball we’d be in pretty good shape.”

As a result, the Knights found few open looks against a team that could match up with their strengths.

“Kudos to them for sure. They’re really long and athletic,” said Christian senior Ellis Russell. “They can really run with us. … They play the passing lanes really good.”

That defensive effort was something that Tigers talked about in preparation for the contest.

“We’ve been working on it all week,” said Groton’s Becker Bosma. “We’ve been struggling in the past few games and we really wanted to make an emphasis on it tonight. We wanted to talk. I thought we did a good job.”

Meanwhile on offense, Groton received major contributions from a variety of players, making it tough for the Christian defense to key on a particular player.

“All five of those starters can shoot and then off the bench … they just come out guns ablazin’ and they’ve got the green light,” Russell said. “It’s hard to defend. They were getting to the rack early.”

Ryder Johnson led Groton with 16 points, Karson Zak followed with 13, Keegen Tracy contributed 11, and Bosma finished with nine points, seven rebounds and four steals.

The game was a homecoming of sorts for Bosma, who used to play for Christian before transferring to Groton this past year.

“It’s always nice to be back,” Bosma said. “It was a little different going to the other side of the court to go to the bench, but it’s just to nice back playing against guys you grew up with.”

Both squads capped the regular season with 15-5 records and each walked away with mutual respect for the other.

“There’s not even an A team that would want to see them,” Rohrbach said. “We talked in the locker room if they were in the B’s, they would win the B’s.”

Dolan also believes the Knights could make a strong postseason run.

“You’ve got to tip your hats to Christian. They’ve got a great team,” Dolan said. “It’s all about matchups. They great the right draw they could be going to State Bs, there’s no ifs, ands, or buts about that.”

Groton opens the postseason by hosting either Britton-Hecla or Sisseton next Friday. Christian has a home game to open Region 1B on Tuesday.

“We’ve been stressing win or go home really for the last month, because with the lack of experience that maybe we have at the varsity level, we needed them to feel the pressure of a possible win or go home,” Rohrbach said. “And now that it is win or go home, I actually do feel like we’re ready for it.”

GROTON (15-5): Keegen Tracy 5 0-0 11, Ryder Johnson  6 3-5 16, Becker Bosma 4 0-0 9, Karson Zak 6 0-0 13, Gage Sippel 2 1-2 5, Turner Thompson 1 0-0 2, Teylor Deigel 1 0-0 2. Totals 25-56 4-7 58.

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (15-5): Dylan Hofer 0 2-2 2, Ellis Russell 3 0-2 6, Luke Kaiser 1 0-0 2, Brooks Jett 4 3-6 13, Grady Jett 2 1-2 5. Totals 10-35 6-12 28.

Groton 13 28 44 58

Aberdeen Christian 4 16 25 28

3-point field goals – Tracy, Johnson, Bosma, Zak; B. Jett 2. Total fouls – Groton 9; Aberdeen Christian 8. Rebounds – Groton 35 (Johnson 13, Sippel 7, Bosma 7); Aberdeen Christian 23 (B. Jett 9). Turnovers – Groton 6; Aberdeen Christian 14. Assists – Groton 13 (Zak 4). Steals – Groton 10 (Bosma 4).