The effort and the defense were there, however, so were more than two dozen turnovers for Aberdeen Central Tuesday night.

The Golden Eagles pushed once-beaten Watertown the majority of the way before falling 59-45 in Eastern South Dakota Conference boys’ basketball at Golden Eagles Arena.

“It starts obviously on the defensive end for us,” said Central coach Colton McClemans, “and I thought the kids did a really good job getting up and guarding. … Offensively, you turn it over 25 times, it’s really hard to make up for that offensively.”

The Golden Eagles bolted out of the gates on a mission in the opening quarter, leading by six points at two different stages. Senior Turner Bergan scored the team’s first seven points.

“I just was ready to go right away,” Bergan said. “That’s what I wanted.”

Central was up 19-17 before a pivotal stretch turned the game around. The Arrows scored the final seven points of the first half and then tacked on the first six points of the second half for a 30-19 advantage. During that stretch, the Golden Eagles missed four shots and turned the ball over four times.

“Those are turnovers,” said Central senior Jack Bertsch of that stretch. “Top of the key turnovers. We eliminate those, we’re in this game, if not winning it.”

Instead, the Golden Eagles were then forced to play from behind the rest of the way. While they hung with the Arrows and trailed just 49-43 with 2:53 remaining, the Princeton offense that Central employs typically takes time off the clock each possession as it works through its progressions.

“Once you get kind of into your Princeton offense, you’re kind of grinding out some possessions and reading things and trying to see what you can get outside of that,” McClemans said. “That’s obviously going to be a huge part of what we’ve got to create is valuing the basketball, because if you turn it over, then you’re taking away some opportunities to score and shoot the basketball.”

Bergan led Central with 11 points, while Bertsch, Luke Swanson, and Brenner Waldrop each finished with eight.

Bertsch often distributes the ball in the Central offense.

“I gotta give credit to these guys. They do their job. My job is to feed it to them,” Bertsch said. “I don’t look to score too often, and when I do, I do, but I like to feeding these guys. I like getting them points.”

The contest featured a unique twist as McClemans got a chance to coach against his father, Pat, who is the Watertown head coach.

“Once the ball gets thrown up at tip off, it escapes you and you’re just trying to focus on your team and your kids … We’re are our two biggest fans for 18 games this year,” McClemans said, “and two of the games this year we’re not our biggest fans.”

Father was impressed by his son’s preparation as Central challenged the Arrows the entire way.

“Obviously, we’re not a very physical team. I thought they were very physical tonight,” said the elder McClemans. “That’s a credit to Colton and his staff, getting them ready to play. They took a lot of stuff away from us.”

Colton’s brother, Jackson, scored 14 points for Watertown.

Central will get a rare shot at revenge as the Golden Eagles play Watertown twice this year during the regular season.

“We play them one more time,” Bergan said. “That’s the good thing about it.”

Despite the setback, the Eagles remained upbeat following the contest.

“It means improvement,” Bergan said. “We improved from last week to this week and it shows.”

Central, 1-6 on the season, hosts Tea Area on Saturday afternoon.

McClemans said the team is trending in a positive manner.

“We’re headed in the right direction. … Yeah, you want to play some good basketball in January,” he said, “but your real end goal is to play really well in February and March.”

WATERTOWN (7-1): Carter Buisker 6 2-2 17, Jack Mack 5 2-4 12, Kaden Decker 2 0-2 4, Jackson McClemans 5 4-4 14, Isaac Rehorst 2 2-4 6, Dane Stark 2 0-0 4, Ashton Rabine 0 2-2 2. Totals 22-46 12-48 59.

ABERDEEN CENTRAL (1-6): Luke Swanson 4 0-1 8, Kalen Larson 1 0-0 2, Turner Bergan 5 0-0 11, Jack Bertsch 4 0-0 8, Brenner Waldrop 4 0-0 8, Liam Rife 0 1-2 1, Gavin Hauck 3 0-0 7. Totals 21-44 1-3 45.

Watertown 9 24 41 59

Aberdeen Central 11 19 34 45

3-point field goals – Buisker 3; Bergan, Hauck. Total fouls – Watertown 13; Aberdeen Central 13. Rebounds – Watertown 21 (McClemans 6); Aberdeen Central 30 (Waldrop 9). Turnovers – Watertown 14; Aberdeen Central 25. Assists – Watertown 5 (Mack 2, McClemans 2); Aberdeen Central 9 (Waldrop 3, Bertsch 2, Carter Board 2). Steals – Watertown 14 (McClemans 8); Aberdeen Central 3.