Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Dunwa Omot takes a shot over a pair of Jordan defenders during the first half of the Chargers Section 2AA playoff loss Monday at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

MANKATO — Despite a closely contested first half of boys’ basketball during the Section 2AA, North Subsection finals on Monday at Bresnan Arena, No. 2-seeded Jordan utilized hot shooting and a 14-0 run in the second half to cruise to a 91-67 win over top-seeded Minnesota Valley Lutheran.

Ryan Samuelson’s 40-point night for the Hubmen didn’t help the Chargers either.

“We could have played tighter on [Samuelson],” MVL head coach Craig Morgan said. “We can always second guess that, but he came out and shot like none other. We didn’t get the help we wanted, it looked like we were a little tense, but our defense is usually starting everything off. And then we didn’t score. We didn’t score early, but at halftime we were only down by 5 for as poorly as we played.

“But to their [the Hubmen’s] credit, they kept shooting and it kept going in and we weren’t hitting them. And the second and third shots were killers on us, we didn’t rebound well at all.”

The Chargers were outrebounded 38-30.

Jordan also had four other players in double figures, with Reagan Koch adding 11 points and Jojo Kloeppel, Symon Keiser and Bryce Sievers each chipping in 10.

Dunwa Omot led the Chargers with 24 points and four assists, while Jace Marotz had 13 points. Kyreis Harrison added 12 points, six assists and five rebounds for MVL, while Mason Cox had 9 points and nine boards.

With Jordan up 4-0, MVL responded with a 9-0 run to go in front, being led by a layup and a baseline floater from Marotz. After the Hubmen tied it at 11 on an and-one by Kloeppel, Omot buried a step-back 3 to put MVL back in front again 14-11.

Jordan ended up retaking the lead again and led 24-18 with 9:22 left in the half after an and-one by Samuelson, prompting Morgan to burn a timeout. Jordan then increased its first-half lead to 37-28 after Samuelson drained a 3 and a baseline jumper.

The Chargers cut their deficit to 44-40 after a bucket inside by Cox with less than a minute before halftime and trailed 45-40 at the half.

Samuelson buried another 3 to start the second half and put Jordan in front 48-40, which was an unfortunate sign of things to come for MVL. After a 9-1 run gave the Hubmen a 61-47 lead and Morgan used another timeout with 12:57 left in the half, the Chargers rallied and got a 7-0 run out of the timeout to trail 61-54.

The run featured a floater by Omot, a corner 3 by Harrison on a dish from Omot and a pair of free throws by Cox. That was the closest MVL got from there out, however, as Jordan continued to hit shots at a high rate, eventually going on a 14-0 run to lead 81-58. During that run, Samuelson had a pair of 3s and a putback bucket.

The Hubmen led by as much as 28, 88-60, in the game.

The Chargers graduate seven total seniors this year, including four starters. Morgan said that despite the tough loss, he’s enjoyed this group a lot and is proud of how they worked together.

“This year’s group, all together, was a team,” Morgan said. “One of the guys in there [the locker room] said, ‘A bunch of brothers,’ and they were. They had each’s others back, they pushed each other in practice. They gave each other, including me, a hard time.

“It was the most fun I’ve had in over 15, 20 years. It’s in my top two, three teams and it’s right up on the top, I think, because the way that they passed sometimes and moved the ball and then all the sudden found the open guy and he drains it, I just sat their and said, ‘How did that happen?’ And it doesn’t come without a lot of practice, and they do it together, too.”

MVL ends its season with a 26-3 record, while Jordan (21-7) moves on to the Section 2AA finals on Friday.