FAITH – Aberdeen Christian is back in the State B boys’ basketball tournament field after a one-year hiatus following a 55-33 victory over Lemmon in Tuesday’s SoDak 16 round.

The Knights are making their fifth appearance in the last six years and their second under head coach Matt Rohrbach, who is in his second first year with the program. Rohrbach also led Christian to a third place finish in 2023 before the Knights missed last year’s tourney.

“Super proud of the guys,” Rohrbach said. “It was a total team win.”

The 11th-seeded Knights did, however, have to dig themselves out of a bit of early trouble after the sixth-seeded Cowboys ran out to a 9-2 lead to begin the game. Rohrbach said he decided to let the game play out instead of trying for the early reset.

“I didn’t want to give (Lemmon) the gratification of calling a timeout,” he said. “I trusted our guys. We were feeling the game out, and got a couple shots to go.”

Christian put eight guys in the scoring column, led by Luke Kaiser with 18 and Dylan Hofer with 11. Hofer also had nine steals, while Brooks Jett notched a dozen rebounds, two steals and a pair of blocks.

Rohrbach said there were plenty of contributions to go around.

“There’s a lot of game balls to give out, but I thought Dylan got us going right away,” he said. “He had three steals in the first quarter and converted a couple of them.”

The Knights tallied five threes on the night, all of them seeming to come in big moments.

“Grady (Jett) hit a big three,” Rohrbach said. “Jett (Johnson) had two big threes, one in the first half, one in the second. … Luke hit a huge three to start the second half.”

The entirety of Lemmon’s scoring came from four players. Arlus Yalowizer led the way with 10 points, followed by Jacob Sonsalla and Blake Drayton with eight points each. Blair Ham notched the final seven for the Cowboys.

“It’s hard to even put into words how proud I am of the guys,” Rohrbach said. “That would have been a long ride home, especially with how long it is, but now we’re going to have a little bit of fun.”

Christian will be the seventh seed in the tournament, which kicks off March 20 at Wachs Arena in Aberdeen. The Knights, 18-5, will face No. 2 Dell Rapids St. Mary in the 6 p.m. contest.

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (18-5): Jett Johnson 2 0-0 6, Dylan Hofer 5 1-2 11, Ellis Russell 2 0-0 4, Luke Kaiser 6 5-6 18, Brooks Jett 1 2-4 4, Raymond Rodriguez-Martinez 1 0-0 2, Ethan Biel 1 0-0 3, Grady Jett 3 0-0 7. Totals 21 8-12 55.

LEMMON (19-3): Arlus Yalowizer 4 2-4 10, Jacob Sonsalla 4 0-1 8, Blake Drayton 3 1-1 8, Blair Ham 2 2-2 7. Totals 13 5-10 33.

Aberdeen Christian 11 22 38 55

Lemmon 11 19 28 33

3-point field goals – Johnson 2, Kaiser, Biel, G. Jett; Drayton, Ham. Fouled out – Lemmon, Nathan Penfield. Total fouls – Aberdeen Christian 13; Lemmon 19. Rebounds – Aberdeen Christian 27 (B. Jett 12, Hofer 5). Assists – Aberdeen Christian 2 (Russell, Kaiser). Turnovers – Aberdeen Christian 11. Blocks – Aberdeen Christian 2 (B. Jett 2). Steals – Aberdeen Christian 14 (Hofer 9).