BOWDLE – Aberdeen Christian’s two-game winning streak came to an end Tuesday night.

The Knights fell to North Central 57-31 in a Lake Region Conference girls’ basketball contest.

Christian trailed by nine points at the half, and could have been even a bit closer, according to coach Matt Rohrbach.

“They ended up hitting a couple more threes in that first half to give them that nine-point advantage. And honestly, if we kept our turnovers down in the second quarter and the first quarter, and gotten maybe a few more good looks, I think we could have maybe had it within five or so,” Rohrbach said. “It’s a tall task to come back down nine, but honestly, I thought we fought in the first half, and I was pretty pleased with it.”

After North Central scored the first five points, the Knights scored six unanswered points to take the lead. The first two came on a steal from Molleigh Hofer, who went coast-to-coast for a layup, followed by a steal and fastbreak layup from Jolie Fogarty. Ari Johnson then hit a shot in the paint to give Christian the lead.

“It was fun to see them be resilient, because it’s not super fun obviously to (trail) early in the first quarter and wondering ‘Should you call a time out? Should you not call a time out?’” Rohrbach said. “Jolie got a couple steals and kind of got going early and already had that one shot. Molleigh kind of got us going with that layup. It was a team effort.”

The Knights were able to get out in transition in the opening half, but so were the Thunder.

“I think you kind of saw that from both teams tonight. They got transition points, we got transition points and neither one of us really had good half-court offense when the other team was set up,” Rohrbach said. “We just tried to put as much ball pressure as we could early as we kind of got into the flow of things. We’ve been running a little bit of a zone lately and trying to get some traps and that definitely helped.”

Heading into the second half trailing by nine, the Knights received a positive message from their coaches at the break.

“I wanted to make sure that they understood that the game wasn’t over down nine. Me and Coach (Marcus) Robinson are having the girls understand that yes, we’re down nine points, but the basketball game’s not over,” said Rohrbach. “We want to change that mindset that we go into a basketball game and regardless of what happens, we’re gonna play our best every single possession.”

The Thunder prevented any sort of Christian comeback as they switched up their game plan with a tighter defensive approach that only allowed the Knights to put up four points in the third quarter.

The Knights were able to connect from the perimeter in the second half, making three 3-pointers, two from Jacie Fogarty and another from Hofer.

“It was super cool to see Jacie hit one because, I mean the reality is, is that basketball’s a lot more fun when shots go in. And it was cool. I mean she hit two back-to-back,” said Rohrbach. “And we were trying to get Ari a three too, and Jolie, too. And so when shots go in, basketball can be a lot of fun.”

Ella Batie led North Central with 18 points, while Amree Vander Vorst contributed 14. The Thunder are now 10-4 on the season.

Jacie Fogarty led Christian with 10 points, and Jolie Fogarty followed with eight.

Christian, 2-11, will face Northwestern on Thursday as part of a girls-boys doubleheader at the Aberdeen Civic Arena.

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (2-11): Ari Johnson 1 0-0 2, Jolie Fogarty 3 2-3 8, Molleigh Hofer 2 0-0 5, Sophia Eichler 1 0-0 2, Jacie Fogarty 4 0-0 10, Reagan Jett 2 0-0 4. Totals 13 2-3 31.

NORTH CENTRAL (10-4): Ella Batie 8 2-3 18, Amree Vander Vorst 5 2-2 13, Alaina Dosch 2 0-0 5, Tylee Vander Vorst 3 1-2 9, Carleigh Dosch 2 0-0 4, Lindsey Geier 0 1-2 1, Ashton Heyne 1 0-0 2, Becca Batie 1 0-0 2, Brooklyn Rohrbach 1 0-0 3. Totals 23 6-9 57.

Aberdeen Christian 8 17 21 31

North Central 12 26 40 57

3-point field goals – Jacaie Fogarty 2, Hofer; T. Vander Vorst 2, A. Vander Vorst, A. Dosch, Rohrbach. Total fouls – Aberdeen Christian 12; North Central 8. Rebounds – Aberdeen Christian 30; North Central 32 (E. Batie 10). Turnovers – Aberdeen Christian 24; North Central 13. Assists – North Central 10 (A. Dosch 4). Steals – Aberdeen Christian 11; North Central 7.