WATERTOWN – Aberdeen Christian defeated a foreign foe to return to a familiar place Tuesday night.

The Knights turned back Sioux Falls Lutheran in the first ever meeting between the two teams in a 67-52 Class B SoDak 16 boys’ basketball victory at the Watertown Civic Arena.

The victory puts Christian back in the State B tournament field next week at Wachs Arena for the second straight season, and sixth time in the past seven years.

“It’s good. I love it,” said Knights senior Grady Jett. “It’s been a really good year. I’ve loved every second of it.”

The plan heading into the contest was for Christian to get the ball inside where the Knights owned a size advantage. However, the local squad deviated from that plan with four 3-pointers in the opening quarter, including two by Luke Kaiser on back-to-back possessions.

“It was kind of funny that we started with Luke hitting two straight 3s, and we were missing shots at the rack,” said Christian coach Matt Rohrbach. “We just kind of stayed the course and knew that shots would start to fall down low.”

The Knights built their lead to 21-9 on Kaiser’s third triple of the game in the first minute of the second quarter.

“Our point guard Dylan (Hofer) and our posts really made it easy, gave me open looks from 3, and just gave me the confidence throughout the game,” Kaiser said. “That’s all on my teammates.”

That double-digit lead quickly evaported though as the Eagles started showing their own accuracy from 3-point range, making three in the second quarter alone. SF Lutheran eventually sliced the deficit down to 27-25 with 2:29 left in the half.

“Our whole game plan was to try to stop their shooters,” Kaiser said, “put pressure on all of them and try to help off the ball less, put pressure on their shooters and make them drive.”

Christian led by four points at the half before their pre-game strategy began to pay dividends in the third quarter. Brooks Jett and Grady Jett worked inside for eight points in the period as the Knights reestablished a double-digit lead by quarter’s end.

“Just get it in and take advantage of our size, Brooks and I, just let us feast,” Grady Jett said. “That’s what we did.”

Christian steadily pulled away down the stretch as the Eagles were overmatched in the lane.

“It’s been what we’ve battled all year, physicality,” said Lutheran coach Kent Becker. “They just had five guys that we had to be physical with. We knew we were outmatched there.”

That physicality took the Eagles out of their comfort zone and the Knights took advantage of it.

“We thought we were prepared for them. We thought we could stick with them in man, but the physicality, they beat us, so it put us in zone, and that’s not where we’re comfortable,” Becker said. “We want to get up and down the floor and get inside-out 3s.”

And the Eagles proved they could shoot the ball, nailing nine 3-pointers in the contest.

“They have some really good shooters,” Rohrbach said. “I thought we just had a championship effort from a defensive standpoint.”

Sam Borg led the Eagles with 16 points, including four shots from distance, some with a high degree of difficulty.

“Some of shots he hit were crazy,” Rohrbach said, “coming off a double (screen), I thought I was watching Steph Curry play.”

Drew Knobloch added 13 points, Rowen Becker had 11, and Kade Matthies finished with 10 for the Eagles, who are in just their sixth year as a varsity program.

“We see the growth,” coach Becker said, “We’re thankful for it, and we’re ready to keep improving, too.”

Brooks Jett had 18 points to lead four players in double figures for Christian. Kaiser finished with 15, and Grady Jett had 11. Hofer had a solid all-around game with 14 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, four steals and a pair of blocked shots.

The Knights are excited about returning to the state tourney.

“It means a lot for our school to go back to the state tournament,” Kaiser said, “because we’re a very small school in Aberdeen, and it means a lot to all of us on the team.”

When asked what it will take for the Knights to have success in the tournament, Grady Jett responded, “We’ve just got to lock in, know what we’re doing on defense, and then just play our game on offense.”

The Knights, 20-3, will face defending State B champion Castlewood in the opening round at 12:45 in the afternoon a week from Thursday.

“It’s going to be a fun game. We’re excited,” Rohrbach said. “We haven’t gotten to play them obviously yet this year, actually to my knowledge we’ve never played Castlewood as a basketball program. It will be the first time we get to play them and our guys will be ready.”

SIOUX FALLS LUTHERAN (16-7): Kade Matthies 5 0-0 10, ,Abbott Moeller 1 0-0 2, Rowen Becker 4 1-2 11, Drew Knobloch 5 0-0 13, Sam Borg 5 2-2 16. Totals 20-53 3-4 52.

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (20-3): Grady Jett 5 0-0 11, Brooks Jett 7 3-6 18, Dylan Hofer 4 5-8 14, Luke Kaiser 5 2-4 15, Loyall Smith-Wade 3 3-4 9. Totals 24-59 13-22 67.

Sioux Falls Lutheran 9 28 36 52

Aberdeen Christian 18 32 46 67

3-point field goals – Becker 2, Knobloch 3, Borg 4; G. Jett, B. Jett, Hofer, Kaiser 3. Total fouls – Sioux Falls Lutheran 16; Aberdeen Christian 9. Rebounds – Sioux Falls Lutheran 31 (Matthies 9); Aberdeen Christian 36 (B. Jett 13, Hofer 12). Turnovers – Sioux Falls Lutheran 11; Aberdeen Christian 5. Assists – Sioux Falls Lutheran 12 (Matthies 4); Aberdeen Christian 9 (Hofer 4). Blocked shots – Sioux Falls Lutheran 1; Aberdeen Christian 3 (Hofer 2). Steals – Sioux Falls Lutheran 4 (Moeller 2); Aberdeen Christian 6 (Hofer 4).