Aberdeen Christian was just waiting to let loose and that burst came halfway through the third quarter Thursday night.

The fifth-rated Knights exploded on a 23-2 run to erase a deficit and claim a 60-44 non-conference boys’ basketball win over Gettysburg at the Christian School Gym.

After a rough first half, Christian regrouped and dominated the second half, thanks in part to its relentless pressure defense.

“It’s a game of runs,” said Christian point guard Dylan Hofer. “If we get the momentum we just can’t look back and keep our foot on the gas.”

Hofer played a major role in that run, which turned a 34-30 deficit into a commanding 53-36 advantage. The junior, who scored 11 points in the fourth quarter, finished the contest with 19 points, nine rebounds and 10 steals.

“Dylan is incredible,” said Christian coach Matt Rohrbach. “We’ll just sit there on the bench and be like man, I know he does this all the time, but he’s just different.”

The Knights needed that big second half after Gettysburg led for the majority of the first half. The Battlers built a 12-4 lead in the opening quarter and extended it briefly to double digits in the second period.

It was Gettysburg’s press that forced the Knights to play a bit faster than they wanted in the opening 16 minutes.

“Their press does a good job of doing that,” Hofer said. “We thought we were open after we’d break the initial press, but then they just closed in on us, and we’d get a bad shot or turn it over.”

Rohrbach wasn’t too concerned because the Knights had whittled the margin down to just four points at the break.

“They started the game out really hot,” Rohrbach said, “which honestly from my perspective is a good thing I think, because it kind of gets our guys mad and really buckled in to finishing possessions.”

Christian cranked up its defense in the second half and turned the tables on the Battlers.

“We were having back-to-back-to-back turnovers,” said Gettyburg’s Jerand Chase, “which you can’t do against a great team like that.”

Chase, who scored 14 points in the opening half managed just three free throws in the second half.

“We couldn’t really make anything happen getting it past half court,” Chase said. “They really pressed us good.”

And once the Knights got rolling, they scored those 23 points in a hurry.

“We were making some tough shots, just the shots we weren’t making the first half,” Hofer said, “and once we get going it’s kind of hard to stop us.”

Despite the setback, Gettysburg coach Bryce Hall was pleased with his team’s effort against a top-five team.

“I’m proud of my guys. They fought hard,” Hall said. “They come into this gym to play a team the caliber of Christian. They’re 7-1 for a reason. They’ve got good length, good athletes, shoot the ball well.”

In the end though, the Battlers could not overcome a stretch where they scored just two points in more than eight minutes.

“We’ve got to play four quarters,” Hall said. “That’s something we’ve been struggling with at times this season where we go minutes without scoring, and you can’t give a team like that minutes without scoring.”

Chase finished with 17 points to lead the Battlers, while Jack Simon followed with 12.

Chase knows that his team will have to play a complete game if they want to achieve their postseason goals.

“We gotta be able to put two halves together,” Chase said. “We can’t play one half and then come out the second half and get outscored 23-2. We can’t have that happen if we want to go somewhere in the postseason.”

Christian, which plays Timber Lake at Redfield on Saturday, featured a balanced attack receiving nine points from Jett Johnson, seven each from Grady Jett and Luke Kaiser, and six each from Brooks Jett, Loyall Smith-Wade, and Charles Eichler.

“We talk about being a team that has eight guys that can play a lot of minutes,” Rohrbach said, “and I really think in games like this where it’s high tempo, high energy, high focus, the team with the best bench will kind of eat away, eat away and pretty soon you hopefully go on that run that clinches it and that’s what happened.”

GETTYSBURG (4-5): Jack Simon 6 0-2 12, Mason Goebel 2 0-0 6, Jerand Chase 5 5-6 17, Jensen Zweber 1 1-2 4, Joe Stanley 2 0-0 4, Colby Falkenhagen 0 1-2 1. Totals 16 7-12 44.

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (7-1): Jett Johnson 4 0-2 9, Dylan Hofer 7 4-4 19, Grady Jett 3 0-2 7, Luke Kaiser 3 0-0 7, Brooks Jett 1 4-6 6, Loyall Smith-Wade 1 4-4 6, Charles Eichler 3 0-0 6. Totals 22 12-18 60.

Gettysburg 19 29 36 44

Aberdeen Christian 10 25 42 60

3-point field goals – Goebel 2, Chase 2, Zweber; Johnson, Hofer, G. Jett, Kaiser. Total fouls – Gettysburg 18; Aberdeen Christian 15. Rebounds – Aberdeen Christian 40 (B. Jett 10, Hofer 9). Turnovers – Gettysburg 20; Aberdeen Christian 22. Assists – Aberdeen Christian 11 (Hofer 5). Blocked shots – Aberdeen Christian 4 (G. Jett 2). Steals – Aberdeen Christian 21 (Hofer 10, Smith-Wade 5).