NEW ULM — Minnesota Valley Lutheran went on a 23-5 run midway through the second half and held on for a 60-54 win over Sleepy Eye Tuesday night in a Tomahawk Conference boys’ basketball game.

Garrett Parker paced the Chargers (2-10, 2-6) with 12 points. He also brought down 16 rebounds. Ben Pearson added 10 points.

Erizen Traconis led the Indians (0-9; 0-6) with a game-high 16 points. Mason Sellner tossed in 12 points off of the bench with Marcus Martinez ending with 10 points.

“This was a good win for us,” Chargers’ coach Craig Morgan said. “The kids played hard and we battled.”

Indians’ coach Shane Heiderscheidt said that is team “played hard just like we do every game. We have to do the little things better. But we are young. They have battled back every game.”

The Indians had to overcome a slow start that saw them fall behind 13-4 to start that saw them cut the lead to 26-21 at halftime.

Sleepy Eye used 3-pointers from Martinez and Sellner early in the second half to grab a 31-30 lead at the 13:12 mark on Sellner’s 3.

But the Chargers rallied.

A 3 from Pearson sparked 10-0 run before Sellner canned a second 3 to cut the lead to 40-34. But a 3-pointer from Ben Halvorson and back-to-back 3s from Maverick Johnson saw the Chargers leading 53-36.

“They got to many offensive rebounds,” Heiderscheidt said about the Chargers’ run. “And they put the press on us and sometimes with young kids they want to play fast instead of slowing down and making the right decision.”

Morgan said that the run was spurred by his team playing good defense.

“And we hustled and then later on we relaxed and that is going to happen with a young team like we have. They relax and think it is OK. Sleepy Eye can hit those 3s.”

The Indians followed that 23-4 MVL run with a spurt that cut the Chargers’ lead to 59-54 after a Martinez 3 with 15 seconds left in the game.

The game was made closer by the poor free throw shooting by MVL in the game as it made just 4-of-15 charity tosses in the game with two of those made free throws coming from Cole Thompson with 43 seconds left in the game and gave MVL a 59-51 lead.

The Chargers are at Buffalo Lake-Hector/Stewart on Friday while Sleepy Eye is at New Ulm Cathedral on Friday.