Owning a major size-advantage, it only stood to reason Aberdeen Central would pound the ball inside. However, it was the outside shooting of the Golden Eagles that set the tone on Saturday afternoon.

Central nailed its first six 3-pointers of the game and rolled to a 76-51 win over Yankton in an Eastern South Dakota Conference girls’ basketball win at Golden Eagles Arena.

“One of our key points of emphasis was make them guard us inside. That is an obvious strength of ours,” said Central coach Paiton Burckhard. “We didn’t even need to get to that, though. Our girls shot the ball really well. They had confidence, knocked down shots, but yeah what a good way to start.”

Four different players stepped up and made at least one three-point field goal. By then Central owned a commanding 28-9 lead just three minutes into the second quarter.

“I knew our girls were capable of knocking down shots like that,” Burckhard said, “but it’s nice to see and then feel that success, too.”

Central guard Kenadi Withers could tell the Golden Eagles were on the verge of a big-shooting afternoon.

“We’ve been shooting it lights out at practice these past two days,” Withers said. “So we do this shooting drill and the past two days we have just been beating our (three-point) record. Our goal is 30 and we got 44 in two minutes. We’ve just been shooting crazy, so I think that kind of helped our confidence. We’ve just all been crushing it.”

With Yankton not having a starter taller than 5-foot-7, the Gazelles were focused on stopping 6-foot-1 Central center Taryn Hermansen. That left outside shooters open who failed that defensive strategy.

“We knew they were going to double in on our posts,” Withers said. “We had a huge height advantage, so they were going to try and double in and so our guards were going to be open.”

Hermansen, who was double-teamed, patiently waited her turn as she watched her teammates snipe away with pin-point accuracy from the perimeter to start the game.

“The thing that we’ve always focused on is just team basketball. I think that really showed tonight,” Hermansen said. “Yankton came in and they put a lot of girls on me, and then all of a sudden our guards, they stepped up like they normally do and they started putting those balls in. As soon as that happened in the second half, it cleared up a lot on the inside, which showed for sure.”

In the second half it was a complete role reversal of the opening half. The Golden Eagles continually fed the post where Hermansen scored layup after layup on her way to 13 points in the third quarter alone.

“We started a running a play where are goal is to get it in to Taryn and it was working,” Withers said, “just my favorite thing to do, pass it in to Taryn.”

Hermansen is fine either scoring herself or in the case of Saturday’s first half watching her teammates connect.

“I always want to score, but when you get to see your other teammates score, they put in so much work too, so letting them score in honestly so amazing,” Hermansen said. “And if they miss, I’m right there to get them. The same thing turns around when they pass me the ball. It’s just off and on how we play for sure.”

Burckhard knew the Gazelles had to pick their poison on defense and it turned out Central was prepared and ready to go for both.

“We knew they were going to have to figure out how to guard us differently,” Burckhard said Yankton’s strategy in the first half, “and then when that happened Taryn did a phenomenal job finishing in there.”

Central ended up shooting 67 percent from the field on the way to the win.

Hermansen finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds. Lauryn Burckhard who topped Central with three 3-pointers, contributed 17 points and eight assists. Withers added 12 points.

Central, 5-1 on the season, hosts Sioux Falls Jefferson on Saturday afternoon. The last time the two teams met, Jefferson defeated the Golden Eagles on a half-court shot at the buzzer in a Class AA SoDak 16 game that ended Central’s season.

Coach Burckhard had a message for her girls after the victory over Yankton.

“I said cling on to this win,” Burckhard said, “but if next Saturday doesn’t get you fired up, I don’t know what will.”

YANKTON (1-3): Kelsyn Wells 3 3-3 9, Josslyn Elwood 1 0-0 3, Eden Wolfgram 5 3-4 15, Nora Krajewski 1 1-2 4, September Rauch 0 1-2 1, Burkley Olson 2 0-0 4, Jordan Kudera 5 1-3 12, Isabelle Sheldon 0 0-1 0, Brenna Elwood 1 0-0 3. Totals 18-46 9-15 51.

ABERDEEN CENTRAL (5-1): Ava Yeske 2 0-0 5, Kenadi Withers 4 4-4 12, Emma Dohrer 2 2-2 7, Bentley Pickral 1 0-0 2, Taryn Hermansen 12 1-1 25, Kamdyn Borge 2 0-0 6, Lauryn Burckhard 7 0-0 17, Lianna Erickson 1 0-0 2. Totals 31-46 7-8 76.

Yankton 7 20 36 51

Aberdeen Central 23 34 60 76

3-point field goals – J. Elwood, Wolfgram 2, Krajewski, Kudera, B. Elwood; Yeske, Dohrer, Borge 2, Burckhard 3. Total fouls – Yankton 12; Aberdeen Central 14. Rebounds – Yankton 15 (Wolfgram 4); Aberdeen Central 32 (Hermansen 10). Turnovers – Yankton 9; Aberdeen Central 16. Assists – Yankton 9; Aberdeen Central 23 (Burckhard 8, Withers 5, Yeske 4). Steals – Yankton 9 (Wolfgram 5); Aberdeen Central 5 (Dohrer 2).