Beating a solid Class A opponent is never easy, and it wasn’t for Aberdeen Christian Saturday afternoon, but the Knights made enough plays when they had to during the Cavalier Classic.

Christian built a 13-point advantage and then held off Dell Rapids for a 65-62 boys’ basketball victory at Roncalli Gym.

“You’re up 13 and all of a sudden it’s a 3-point game,” said Christian coach Matt Rohrbach. “From a coaching standpoint that’s not fun, but the guys needed to go through a fire win like this.”

The Knights led 59-46 with 4:17 left in the game, before the Quarriers made a major run. Dell Rapids starting turning Christian over and soon it was a 59-55 margin with just over two minutes remaining.

That’s when Dylan Hofer picked off a pass and drove to the other end for a crucial layup to help stem the tide.

“It’s a huge swing. We call those pick-6’s where it’s live-ball turnovers where we turn it over in the middle of the floor, wherever and they go down and shoot a layup,” said Dell Rapids coach Matthew Cadwell. “It kills momentum. You love when you get those pick-6’s and you hate giving them up.”

Hofer was just waiting for the right opportunity and took advantage of it when it presented itself.

“They ran that play a lot and I was looking for that all night,” Hofer said. “And that was the first time they threw it I think and I just kind of lurked it.”

The Quarriers still weren’t quite finished. They managed to slice the deficit down to three points in the final minute and had a look at a potential game-tying 3-pointer, but could not get it to fall.

“We made it interesting. I wish we wouldn’t dig ourselves such a hole to begin with,” Cadwell said. “It’s been the same thing all year so far. The effort is never a question. It’s just that we need to get better at taking care of the ball and realizing that every possession matters.”

With the Quarriers gaining ground by the minute, Rohrbach decided to let his team play through the rough stretch instead of calling a time out.

“I wanted to trust them fully and not call a time out, which I did,” Rohrbach said. “I didn’t call a time out in that fourth quarter and we just have to be a little bit better executing down the stretch.”

Included in that execution was shot selection as the Knights stayed aggressive on offense instead of pulling the ball out and working on the clock.

“It’s kind of a give and take,” Rohrbach said. “You want the guys to have an aggressive, assertive mindset, but we also gotta understand which ones are the ones we want, and which ones we don’t want.”

The game marked the first action of the season for Brooks Jett, who is recovering from a football injury. The junior all-stater made an immediate impact with seven points in the opening quarter on the way to team-leading 13 points.

“That was nice. … Not only is he 6-5, he’s super athletic,” Hofer said. “He’s smart and he can basically do everything on the court and he’s super good on defense.”

Hofer and Jett Johnson added a dozen points, and Grady Jett and Loyall Smith-Wade each finished with eight

Freshman Camden Jones topped Dell Rapids with 23 points.

Christian plays host to Milbank following the Christmas break.

DELL RAPIDS (0-4): Karson Paye 5 4-4 14, Lincoln Anderson 2 4-6 8, Camden Jones 11 1-2 23, Jackson Peppel 2 2-4 6, Jace Brende 3 1-1 8, Kaden Smith 1 1-1 3. Totals 24 13-18 62.

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (3-0): Jett Johnson 5 0-0 12, Dylan Hofer 5 2-3 12, Grady Jett 4 0-0 8, Luke Kaiser 3 1-2 7, Brooks Jett 6 1-3 13, Loyall Smith-Wade 3 0-0 8, Charles Eichler 2 1-2 5. Totals 28 5-10 65.

Dell Rapids 18 29 39 62

Aberdeen Christian 20 35 48 65

3-point field goals – Brende; Johnson 2, Smith-Wade 2. Total fouls – Dell Rapids 16; Aberdeen Christian 17. Turnovers – Dell Rapids 13; Aberdeen Christian 16.