The final margin was nearly identical, but contest played out much differently this time around.

Aberdeen Christian, which defeated Britton-Hecla by 28 points in an earlier meeting, had their hands full with the Braves Tuesday night before pulling out a 54-30 victory during the Region 1B boys’ basketball tournament at the Aberdeen Civic Arena.

“They’re a solid team. I think they’ve improved throughout the season, but it’s playoffs,” said Christian’s Ethan Russell. “You’re going to get everyone’s best every night. You never know when its going to be your last, so everyone is bringing it.”

The one thing that was the same in both contests was the impact of Russell. The 6-foot-6 junior, who hurt the Braves in the first encounter, did it again, scoring a game-high 25 points and grabbing a dozen rebounds.

“They really didn’t have an answer for him, because they have one big guy and you figure he’s going to be on Kaden (Clark),” said Christian coach David Rohrbach. “And then when he goes on Ethan, Ethan’s just too quick and then he has size on anybody else they’re going to put on him. Credit to Ethan for going inside and going off the dribble. And then when he get’s his shot going, his confidence just is way up. I thought he played really well.”

The Braves got off to a solid start and led 11-5 after the opening quarter.

That’s when Russell started to take over. He scored 12 points in the second quarter, including a four-point play that ended up producing more points than the entire Britton-Hecla team in that period.

By then, Christian had opened up a 26-14 lead.

“I think he’s been our Achilles heel all year,” said Britton-Hecla coach Troy Knecht. “He got loose in that first half for 14. We changed defenses several times to try stop him. For us, he is just a tough matchup.”

The Braves hung tough, though. Instead of going away in the third quarter, they came out and outscored the Knights and got the margin down to 34-26 heading into the final eight minutes.

“We were down 14 at the half and we got it down to 8 at the end of the third quarter,” Knecht said. “I told the guys, ‘We won that quarter, just keep it going.’ I thought we had good looks. We just couldn’t make enough of them.”

Jackson Isakson hit a pair of three pointers to start the fourth quarter before Russell finished what he started, scoring six unanswered points to put the game out of reach.

Russell connected on four three-pointers in the contest, probably none bigger than that one early in the second quarter that ignited the Christian offense.

“Hitting that three kind of freed stuff up for us, just as a whole,” Russell said, “and when we’re hitting from the outside, it’s a lot easier to get going on the inside.”

Isakson added 13 points to the Christian total.

Aidan Fredrickson led the Braves with 17 points. Britton-Hecla finished the year at 5-17.

“We won five games this year. It doesn’t look great in the stat book, but we had several games that were close with guys out, so that’s kind of a moral victory, I guess you might say,” Knecht said. “We’re building a program. We’ve got a bunch of kids that not once all season did they ever quit on us, and they’re ready to keep getting better.”

Christian improved to 18-3 with the victory. The Knights will meet Langford Area in the region semifinals at 6 p.m. Friday in Webster.

Rohrbach expects to see many different looks, much like the team saw against Britton-Hecla.

“I think you can expect a bunch of different defenses, so it was really good to have (Britton-Hecla) throw a ton of stuff at us,” Rohrbach said. “I think that’s going to do a lot for us playing Langford.”

BRITTON-HECLA (5-17): Aidan Fredrickson 6 3-4 17, BoDell Davidson 1 0-0 2, Ashton Mills 1 0-0 3, Dawson Treeby 3 0-0 7, Gage Storley 0 1-2 1. Totals 11-47 4-6 30.

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (18-3): Andrew Brennan 1 2-2 4, Jackson Isakson 5 0-0 13, Ethan Russell 7 7-7 25, Malek Wieker 2 0-0 6, Kaden Clark 1 0-0 2, Konnar Furman 0 0-1 0, Blake Rich 2 0-0 4. Totals 18-50 9-10 54.

Britton-Hecla 11 14 26 30

Aberdeen Christian 5 26 34 54

3-point field goals – Frederickson 2, Mills, Treeby; Isakson 3, Russell 4, Wieker 2. Total fouls – Britton-Hecla 14; Aberdeen Christian 10. Rebounds – Britton-Hecla 31 (Fredrickson 7); Aberdeen Christian 38 (Russell 12). Turnovers – Britton-Hecla 15; Aberdeen Christian 11.