YANKTON – The Yankton Bucks used a complete game to gain their second win of the year over Aberdeen Central 68-35 in an Eastern South Dakota Conference boys’ basketball game Saturday afternoon.

After struggling to start the season, the Golden Eagles changed up some things in hopes of sparking a different outcome. The plan paid initial dividends as Central’s height provided four instant points.

“We started a little bit differently. We started Brenner Waldrop, who typically comes off the bench and gives us a little more size. And early on, we wanted to try and get some early paint touches, and some easy baskets inside the paint,” said Golden Eagles coach Colton McClemans. “We experimented a little bit with that on Friday right before practice and it seemed to look pretty good. And I think our kids did pretty well with that early on.”

It was the 6-foot-6 Waldrop who scored the first points of the game inside the paint, followed by another close shot from 6-foot-5 center Jack Bertsch. However, the Bucks quickly responded with nine unanswered points for an 11-4 advantage.

Although the Golden Eagle offense saw a direct output on offense, there were some holes in the defense with the lineup change.

“Probably one of the negative effects to that is just defensively, it makes us struggle a little bit in terms of putting good ball pressure on and keeping the ball out of the paint,” said McClemans. “Some positives and negatives to it, but all stuff that can be fixable.”

Meanwhile, Yankton’s defense did not struggle with ball pressure as the Bucks forced plenty of steals and turnovers, resulting directly in points.

“I think it’s kind of been a consistent theme for us this year, a little bit. Just being able to handle pressure and be able to get into our offensive schemes. And once we get into it, we’re typically fine,” McClemans said. “We’ve got all week to work on it next week before our game, and it’ll be a pretty big emphasis. Being able to handle pressure and create some advantages for yourself based off of what the defense is giving you.”

Bertsch was one of the Golden Eagles to create some advantages for himself as he put up a team-high 10 points on the night, shooting 5-for-7 from the field.

“Jack did some good things. We talked after the Harrisburg game just about how he can help us offensively. And a lot of times, he plays on that elbow-to-elbow spot, just being able to face up, look at the basket, and if you’re open knock down 15-footers,” McClemans said. “Thats a huge part because then the post player that’s guarding him a little bit more and put some more pressure on him, which will create some more lanes for those drives and back cuts that we want out of our offense.”

However, Central managed to shoot 38 percent while Yankton shot at a 60 percent clip.

“We talked about it in the locker room a little bit. Just talking about the differences of shots that Yankton got compared to us. And you know, a lot of their shots came off of that dribble drive where they got two feet in the lane and then kicked it out for an uncontested 3,” McClemans said. “We’ll go back and watch some film and see some missed opportunities we had and realize that we’re very close to where we need to get to.”

One of those players who nailed a couple of those uncontested threes was Jackson Kudera who shot 3-of-4 from beyond the arc on the way to a 21-point performance for the Bucks.

“That was kind of one of those effects of us starting a little bit different as matchups probably weren’t great for us defensively. That kid did a really good job of scoring around the basket and knocked down some open 3s,” McClemans said. “He’s a very capable scorer and showed that today. We just didn’t do a very good job matchup wise and getting our kids on the right guys that we needed to have.”

While the Bucks continued to pull away, McClemans wanted his guys to finish out the game with effort.

“I think the big emphasis is you want your kids to compete no matter the circumstance and you want to incorporate some toughness things within that, in terms of some things don’t go your way and you still got to find ways to crawl back and get into games that are tougher,” said McClemans. “So, I think trying different kids and some different lineups and seeing what works and kind of just seeing what you can get accomplished in terms of creating the culture that you want.”

The Golden Eagles face Watertown on Tuesday, Jan. 13. As they prepare for the Arrows, they’ll look inwards first.

“Early on next week, it’s definitely got to be a big focus on who we are and kind of figuring out what we want to be,” said McClemans. “Just a lot of work and a lot of focus on us and towards the end of the week, we’ll start looking at our next opponent, and kind of figure out how we’re going to guard them and who’s going to guard who.”

ABERDEEN CENTRAL (1-5): Brenner Waldrop 2 0-0 4, Luke Swanson 1 0-0 3, Kalen Larson 1 0-0 3, Turner Bergan 1 1-1 3, Jack Bertsch 5 0-0 10, Liam Rife 2 0-2 4, Gavin Hauck 3 0-0 8. Totals 15 1-3 35

YANKTON (1-3): Beck Ryken 4 2-4 12, Owen Eidsness 3 0-0 6, Jackson Kudera 9 0-0 21, Abe O’Brien 1 0-0 2, Tegan LaCroix 2 0-0 4, Grady Walder 4 0-0 10, Karson Kral 1 0-0 3, Austin Conway 2 0-0 4. Totals 28 2-2 68

Aberdeen Central 11 18 29 35

Yankton 21 36 54 68

3-point field goals – Swanson, Larson, Hauck 2; Ryken 2, Kudera 3, Walder 2, Kral. Total fouls – Aberdeen Central 8; Yankton 8. Rebounds – Aberdeen Central 19 (Bertsch 4); Yankton 17. Turnovers – Aberdeen Central 14; Yankton 10. Assists – Aberdeen Central 8 (Waldrop 2, Bryson Burgard 2). Steals – Aberdeen Central 4 (Swanson 2, Rife 2). Blocks – Aberdeen Central 1 (Waldrop 1).