Aberdeen Central put itself in good position Saturday afternoon, before Tea Area found the prime spots it needed to pull out a victory at Golden Eagles Arena.

The Titans rallied from a seven-point deficit down the stretch to pull out a 54-51 non-conference boys’ basketball win.

The rally started with three consecutive three-point field goals and was capped off by a pair of offensive rebounds that led to four straight free throws.

The Golden Eagles led 48-41 before three different players made three-pointers on back-to-back-to-back possessions.

“Before that we had been pretty good contesting everything and we lost guys three straight trips. You just can’t do it,” said Central coach Brent Norberg. “They’re too good of a shooting team. They’re as skilled of a team as we’ll play. We had to make them make tough twos and we did that in the second and third quarters, and we didn’t in the fourth.”

The Eagles regained the lead on a three-pointer by Noah Behrends, but two offensive rebounds resulted in four free throws by Cael Lundin to give the Titans the lead for good.

Tea Area ended up outrebounding Central 29-25, which included 11 offensive rebounds.

“That’s been one of our issues, same with our defensive rotations, especially when we get tired, especially since we couldn’t go so deep tonight,” said Tea Area coach Drew Weber. “That’s really been a focal point and today we kind of put that together. It takes a little luck to get out of here with a win, too, and we’ll take it.”

Central had two chances at three-pointers in the final 25 seconds, but was unable to connect.

The Eagles trailed 7-0 to start the game and played from behind until the third quarter when they went on a 12-3 spurt to grab a lead. They were able to maintain the advantage until Tea’s closing flurry.

“We didn’t get off to a very good start,” Norberg said. “After that we played really well in the middle, and then didn’t finish very well.”

Lundin finished with a game-high 21 points to lead the Titans. Jeff Worth contributed 16, and Cole Schilling provided a spark off the bench with eight points.

Central had a balanced attack with four players in double figures led by Behrends with 13 points. Sam Rohlfs and AJ Hase each scored 11 and Alec Voegele added 10.

While the majority of the final statistics were even, the rebounds stuck out to Norberg.

“Our problem was the rebounding stat,” he said. “We needed to win that battle and we didn’t today.”

Central, 7-3 on the season, plays host to O’Gorman on Tuesday at Golden Eagles Arena.

Norberg expects that to be another physical battle.

“You think that it was hard to get a rebound this game, they’re even more physical,” Norberg said. “We have to do a better job. We have to do a better job of blocking out. We have kids that can do it, we just have to do a better job of blocking out.”

TEA AREA (6-2): Jonah Kocer 2 0-0 6, Cael Lundin 6 8-8 21, Jeff Worth 6 0-0 16, Reis Kirschenman 0 0-2 0, Klayton Sattler 1 1-2 3, Cole Schilling 2 3-4 8. Totals 17-45 12-16 54.

ABERDEEN CENTRAL (7-3): Alec Voegele 5 0-2 10, Noah Behrends 4 3-4 13, Sam Rohlfs 5 0-0 11, AJ Hase 4 0-0 11, Jameson Palmer 1 0-0 2, Brady Rohrbach 2 0-0 4. Totals 21-47 3-6 51.

Tea Area 15 29 37 54

Aberdeen Central 7 22 41 51

3-point field goals – Kocer 2, Lundin, Worth 4, Schilling; Behrends 2, Rohlfs, Hase 3. Total fouls – Tea Area 8; Aberdeen Central 16. Rebounds – Tea Area 29 (Kirschenman 8); Aberdeen Central 25 (Behrends 8). Turnovers – Tea Area 8; Aberdeen Central 7. Assists – Tea Area 7 (Lundin 4); Aberdeen Central 14 (Jackson Dorsett 3, Rohlfs 3).