Faced with a defense designed to guard the inside, Aberdeen Christian put on an outside shooting display Saturday evening.

The Knights nailed 14 three-point field goals to help power a 75-48 non-conference boys’ basketball win over Waubay-Summit at the Christian School Gym.

“To hit 14 3’s is difficult for any team, college, high school, NBA, I don’t care,” said Christian coach Matt Rohrbach. “To hit 14 3’s it’s going to be hard to lose, so I’m definitely glad that we hit the 14 and they didn’t have the 14 3’s.”

The Mustangs had to make a choice entering the game, and chose to protect the paint.

“As athletic as they are, and they move so well and pass well on offense … are you going to give them the paint for layups or are you going to give up open 3s?” said Waubay-Summit coach Mark Amdahl. “The game plan was to try to keep them out of the paint and for the most part we did that. They knocked shots down, so credit to them.”

The 3-point shooting barrage started less than a minute into the contest when Luke Kaiser hit a trey to give Christian an early lead. More triples followed in the opening period as Kaiser added another, and Jett Johnson, Brooks Jett, and Charlie Eichler all had one 3-pointer as the Knights opened a 22-7 lead after the first eight minutes.

“I think it kind of naturally happened,” Johnson said. “I don’t think we necessarily went in there planning it, but we just shot really well.”

Rohrbach said his team just tries to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.

“The way our team is built is just taking whatever the defense is going to give us,” Rohrbach said.

The remainder of the game was played on relatively even terms, but the damage was already done and the Mustangs were never able to recover following the opening quarter.

“It was a slow start for us and that’s kind of what’s been happening this year,” Amdahl said. “Every game we’re not starting out to where we need to be and that’s on me. I gotta get our kids more prepared.”

The Knights continued to connect from the perimeter throughout the game, making a pair of 3-pointers in the second period, five more in the third quarter, and finishing with two more in the fourth quarter.

“This is my kind of game,” said Johnson, who finished with three treys on the way to 10 points. “It’s about time I shot well.”

While Christian was shooting from distance, Waubay-Summit was doing major damage in the lane, where 6-foot-7 sophomore Hogen Hlavacek was on his way to a 20-point effort.

“It was pretty hard down there,” Hlavacek said. “They have a couple guys that are over 6-3, 6-4, it’s just hard buckets down there.”

While he had to earn his points, the Knights never truly found a way to stop him, either.

“First off, he’s a good player. Only a sophomore, he’s a good player,” Rohrbach said. “We knew that coming in. I have a lot of respect for him, because he’s a really good player.”

Christian also received a dominant performance inside the paint where Jett not only scored a game-high 23 points, he also hauled down a game-high 20 rebounds.

Eichler finished with a dozen points, and Kaiser followed with 11.

“It was a lot of fun,” Johnson said. “I’m really proud of everyone else. They really played aggressive.”

The Mustangs also received 12 points from McKoy Pereboom off the bench. However, no other player managed more than six points in the game.

“Hogan does a really good job. He’s a beast down there and McCoy did a really good job of coming in and hitting shots for us,” Amdahl said. “Our other players, they can make shots, too, they just gotta come in and be confident. We just gotta find that confidence and that rhythm in our offense that’s lacking still.”

Hlavacek said the big key for the Mustangs moving forward is just better starts.

“We just gotta come out better, we gotta come out of the game quicker,” Hlavacek said. “We gotta get on the scoreboard quicker. Our offense needs to get better.”

Christian’s offense showed a marked improvement from a week ago when the Knights only managed 36 points total in a setback to Milbank. Rohrbach said the players felt like they had something to prove after that.

“It’s one thing to lose, but it’s another thing to score 36 points and lose, and they were frustrated about that and I think you really saw that tonight,” Rohrbach said. “You’re not always going to make 14 3’s, but I was proud of just the way we shot with confidence tonight, regardless if you were making them or missing them.”

The Knights (5-1) head into a busy week with three games, playing at Wolsey-Wessington on Tuesday, hosting Gettysburg on Thursday, and facing Timber Lake at the Redfield Classic on Saturday.

“Keeping low drama and high energy, I think is the big thing,” Johnson said.

Hitting more than a dozen 3-pointers never hurts, either.

“We just gotta play game by game and be discipline,” Johnson said. “Just give 100 percent effort and if we shoot like that, not many teams are probably going to be able to beat us.”

WAUBAY-SUMMIT (3-3): Jace Wohlleber 2 0-0 4, Evan Aker 0 1-2 1, Hogan Hlavacek 7 4-8 20, Teegan Gaikowski 2 2-2 6, Newton Campbell 0 2-4 2, Tripp Gaikowski 1 0-0 3, McKoy Pereboom 5 0-0 12. Totals 17-49 9-16 48.

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (5-1): Jett Johnson 3 1-1 10, Dylan Hofer 2 0-0 4, Luke Kaiser 4 0-0 11, Brooks Jett 9 2-3 23, Loyall Smith-Wade 3 0-2 7, Raymond Rodriguez-Martinez 1 0-0 3, Charles Eichler 4 2-2 12, Jashawn Anderson 1 0-0 2, Carter Ingmansen 1 0-0 3. Totals 28-59 5-8 75.

Waubay-Summit 7 19 36 48

Aberdeen Christian 22 38 59 75

3-point field goals – Hlavacek 2, Gaikowski, Pereboom 2; Johnson 3, Kaiser 3, Jett 3, Smith-Wade, Rodriguez-Martinez, Eichler 2, Ingmansen. Total fouls – Waubay-Summit 12; Aberdeen Christian 13. Rebounds – Waubay-Summit 29 (Hlavacek 8); Aberdeen Christian 45 (Jett 20). Turnovers – Waubay-Summit 11; Aberdeen Christian 11.