Brandon Valley sped things up before Aberdeen Central got a chance to slow things down Saturday afternoon at Golden Eagles Arena.

The top-rated Lynx scored 13 points in the first three minutes and ran past the third-rated Golden Eagles 77-44 in an Eastern South Dakota Conference girls’ basketball game.

“Aberdeen’s a great team, said Brandon Valley coach and Aberdeen native Mike Zerr. “We just came out and got after it tonight.”

The Lynx had it all working throughout the game: an effective full-court press that forced 20 turnovers, and fluid offensive attack that resulted in 54 percent shooting, and players who consistently beat defenders off the dribble to finish at the rim.

“It’s not like they do anything special, either. They pick your pocket,” said Central coach Paiton Burkchard. “They force you into a turnover and layups and transition. … They just beat you off the dribble. They’re very, very talented.”

Brandon Valley scored the first 10 points of the game and exploded for 29 first-quarter points. It was evident the Lynx have played together for years.

“They’re a super focused group. They love playing together, they love playing the game,” Zerr said. “They work incredibly hard at it. All that work that they love translates into really positive stuff on the floor.”

The Lynx were always on the lookout for an open teammate, driving into the lane, sometimes turning down a good shot for an even better one.

“It’s motion basketball and it’s a beautiful way to play when you have kids that can play that way,” Zerr said. “They’re incredibly high skilled and they’ve played with each other for a long time.”

Brandon Valley opened a 29-point halftime lead and eventually put a running clock into motion. However, Central was able to get more things done in the half court as the game went on.

“I saw some better things in the second half. We went in there and I was blunt,” Burckhard said of her halftime message. “I was like you can either handle this one of two ways. You can handle it and go out there and be like well, it is what it is, we’re losing or you can go out there, and be like what can I do to be better, what can I do to make a little bit of a change? And I saw glimpses of that. So you build off of that.”

When the Golden Eagles were able to slow things down, their high-low post game caused major problems for the Lynx as Lauryn Burckhard and Taryn Hermansen worked together, one feeding the other for layups.

“It’s really tough to stop,” Zerr said of those post feeds. “They’re an incredibly physical team. They rebound the ball better than anybody in our state. We knew that would be challenge.”

However, it was BV’s press that prevented a lot of that half-court offense for the Golden Eagles.

“We definitely need to work on our full-court pressure, and playing our game, playing slow, getting into our half court,” said Central senior Emma Dohrer, “because once we get into our half court people can’t stop us, our two bigs, our shooters outside.”

The problem was Central had 19 turnovers in the first half alone as the Lynx applied major pressure.

“Our press breaker, we just need to figure how to do that better and more efficiently, but they just got so many steals,” said Lauryn Burckhard. “We had a lot of turnovers in the first half. If we wouldn’t have had those, it would have been different.”

Alyvia Padgett had 21 points and Gracie Salter had 20 for the Lynx, who improved to 10-0 on the season.

When Brandon Valley was forced to play in the half court on its end, the visitors continually broke down the Central defense and got into the lane.

“They’re super down hill when they’re in the half court and they have shooters, so we just really need to focus in on our defense,” Dohrer said. “We’ve been practicing that this past week in practice, closing out hard, really just playing team basketball, trying to scramble. We knew coming into it that we were going to have to play the scramble game.”

Lauryn Burckhard led Central 15 points, while Hermansen finished with 11 and Dohrer contributed 10.

The Golden Eagles, 8-3 on the season, host Pierre on Tuesday, looking to snap a two-game skid against the top two-rated teams this past week in Brandon Valley and O’Gorman.

“I think the biggest thing is how do we respond? I’m hoping this is a little bit of a reality check for us, that like we’re not just going to get to show up every game and just be there,” Coach Burckhard said. “You have to be willing to show up and do the little things right.”

BRANDON VALLEY (10-0): Ava Kellenberger 2 4-4 8, London Geiver 3 2-4 10, Reese Condon 1 0-0 2, Alyvia Padgett 9 2-2 21, Gracie Salter 7 6-6 20, Rayleigh Stultz 1 0-0 2, Gwendolyne Lease 2 0-0 6, Vivian Thompson 1 0-0 3, Autumn Pedersen 2 0-0 5. Totals 28-52 14-16 77.

ABERDEEN CENTRAL (8-3): Ava Yeske 1 0-0 2, Kenadi Withers 1 0-2 4, Emma Dohrer 4 1-2 10, Lauren Burckhard 6 1-2 15, Taryn Hermansen 4 3-8 11, Julia Malsam 0 2-2 2. Totals 16-36 9-18 44.

Brandon Valley 29 51 65 77

Aberdeen Central 7 22 34 44

3-point field goals – Geiver 2, Padgett, Lease 2, Thompson, Pedersen; Dohrer, Burckhard 2. Total fouls – Brandon Valley 14; Aberdeen Central 13. Rebounds – Brandon Valley 22 (Kellenberger 4); Aberdeen Central 27 (Hermansen 10). Turnovers – Brandon Valley 6; Aberdeen Central 20. Assists – Brandon Valley 14 (Salter 4); Aberdeen Central 12 (Hermansen 3, Borge 3). Steals – Brandon Valley 15 (Salter 7, Kellenberger 4); Aberdeen Central 3 (Burckhard 2).