File photo by Steve Muscatello Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Jace Marotz makes a layup during a recent game at MVL.

NEW ULM — Earlier in the season, Minnesota Valley Lutheran had defeated Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop 61-27.

Thursday night’s Tomahawk Conference game between the two teams still resulted in a MVL win, but it was closer than their first meeting.

Jake Kettner scored 24 points with Jace Marotz adding 15 points and Matt Stein ending with 10 as the Chargers improved to 11-4 in the conference and 17-7 overall with a 77-64 win over the Thunderbirds.

Kettner and Marotz each had seven rebounds with Kettner dishing out nine assists and adding four steals.

Zach Weber led GFW (6-16, 4-10) with 20 points. Damien Hopp netted 17 and Martin Ortiz added 12.

GFW head coach Jon DeRock said that he was happy that his team was able to compete.

“We battled with them the whole game. There were a couple of plays down the stretch that made them pull away from us.”

“I think that at first we were complacent, but overall, I was happy with our effort,” Chargers head coach Craig Morgan said. “We gave up some runs to them and we cannot do that. It is nice to have our big runs but we have to come back and counteract their runs.”

And runs played a big part in the game for both teams.

The Chargers, who host Springfield Tuesday, trailed GFW 8-3 before they went on a 13-0 run to take a 16-8 lead, forcing DeRock to call a timeout. Stein would collect 6 of his 10 points inside, scoring three straight baskets for a 9-8 lead. A Kettner 3 later made it 14-8 and a Matt Munsen hoop saw MVL doubling up GFW.

But GFW would outscore MVL 20-18 to close out the first half to cut the lead to 34-28 at halftime led by Weber, who converted a conventional three-point play and would later bury a 3-pointer.

MVL used another run, this one an 11-3 spurt early in the second half to take a 45-31 lead that the T-Birds could not overcome.

A Weber 3-pointer pulled GFW to within 50-41 with just over eight minutes left in the game, but GFW could get no closer.

“We are figuring some things out as the season has gone on,” DeRock said. “Our 2-3 matchup zone has caused teams some problems. We have also had a freshman, Damien Hopp, come in and really contributed on the offensive end.”

The Chargers sealed the contest late with an 8-2 run for a 71-45 cushion with less than two minutes to go in the game.