MOBRIDGE – The Aberdeen Christian boys’ basketball team could not dig itself out of a deficit on Tuesday night.

The Knights fell behind early en route to a 77-61 non-conference loss to Mobridge-Pollock.

The Tigers took an early lead and eventually built a 42-29 halftime lead. Christian coach Aaron Moeller said mistakes led to the large deficit in the first half.

“We had way too many turnovers in that first half,” Moeller said. “We kind of dug ourselves a hole. It was close in that first quarter and then it kind of got away from us due to some turnovers in the second quarter and we just couldn’t dig out of that hole.”

In the second half, the Tigers outscored the Knights by just three points, 35-32, but the first-half deficit was too much for the Knights to overcome.

Unique White Twin led Mobridge-Pollock with 20 points, while Shane Henderson had 19 points, seven rebounds, and three steals. Jackson Eisemann had 14 points, while Kale Knudson and Kellen Pfitzer added nine and eight points, respectively, to the scoring effort.

For Aberdeen Christian, Joey Johnson scored a game-high 22 points, while Konnar Furman and Ellis Russell each had 10 points.

While Moeller was glad to see a balanced scoring effort by his team, he contributed the loss to the defensive side of the ball.

“Tonight, offensively we get three guys in double figures and don’t get the win, but we just didn’t get it done on the defensive end,” Moeller said. “We have to do a better job on the defensive end. It was really contributed to two things, turnovers and rebounds.”

Mobridge-Pollock (4-0) will be back in action on Jan. 2 when the Tigers travel to Potter County, while Aberdeen Christian (1-3) will head into the holiday break before returning to action on Jan. 6 at home against Sioux Falls Lutheran.

Moeller emphasized getting better over the holiday break.

“It’s actually a good thing that we’ve got this break coming up,” Moeller said. “It will be good just to hopefully have some good practices and work on some things that we need to do to get better.”

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (1-3): Ellis Russell 5 0-0 10, Becker Bosma 3 0-0 7, Konnar Furman 4 2-2 10, Joey Johnson 9 4-5 22, Luke Kaiser 1 1-2 3, Jett Johnson 1 0-0 3, Brooks Jett 1 2-3 4, Grady Jett 1 0-0 2. Totals 25 9-12 61.

MOBRIDGE-POLLOCK (4-0): Kale Knudson 4 1-2 9, Jackson Eisemann 7 0-0 14, Simon Fried 1 0-0 2, Shane Henderson 9 1-4 19, Kellen Pfitzer 3 0-0 8, Easton Eisemann 2 1-2 5, Unique White Twin 8 2-2 20. Totals 34 5-10 77.

Aberdeen Christian 12 29 44 61

Mobridge-Pollock 18 42 63 77

3-point field goals – Bosma, Jett Johnson; Pfitzer (2), White Twin (2). Total fouls – Aberdeen Christian 10; Mobridge-Pollock 15. Rebounds – Aberdeen Christian 30 (Joey Johnson 6, Russell 6); Mobridge-Pollock 27 (Henderson 7). Turnovers – Aberdeen Christian 15; Mobridge-Pollock 3. Assists – Aberdeen Christian 12 (Joey Johnson 4); Mobridge-Pollock 9 (J. Eisemann 3). Steals – Aberdeen Christian 0; Mobridge-Pollock 7 (Henderson 3).