Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Springfield’s Brayden Sturm goes up for a layup as Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Ben Halvorson (14) and Kyler Flunker (11) look for a block during a Tomahawk Conference boys basketball game at Springfield High School on Tuesday night.

SPRINGFIELD — Despite a rough first half plagued by turnovers and missed opportunities, Minnesota Valley Lutheran cleaned things up in the second half and pulled away for a 69-43 win over Springfield in Tomahawk Conference boys basketball action Tuesday night at Springfield High School.

Ben Pearson led MVL with 17 points, seven rebounds and six steals, while Cole Thompson had 14 points, five steals and four rebounds and Will Kaesermann had 11 points and five rebounds.

Springfield was led by Brayden Sturm, who had 13 points, five steals and three assists. Noah Vogel added 10 points and six rebounds for the Tigers.

The Chargers finished the game with 18 turnovers, but the majority of their turnovers came early on, allowing a young Springfield team with just one senior to hang around.

“We had a ton of turnovers and we didn’t shoot well,” MVL head coach Craig Morgan said of his team’s first-half troubles. “I don’t think we defended well — we just didn’t play well in the first half. And Springfield played really well that first half. Their kids went to the basket, they were tenacious, and we sat and watched for a while. We forced passes where we haven’t been the last couple of games.”

The Tigers committed 18 turnovers in the game also, but the majority of them came in the second half, allowing the Chargers to take a commanding lead in the final eight minutes of play.

Tigers head coach Lance Larson said MVL’s physicality wore his team down a little bit in the second half also.

“They take a lot of stuff away from us offensively, they get up in your shorts and play you tough defensively,” Larson said. “They play eight, nine guys, and quite honestly after the first three guys, it probably doesn’t matter, they’re all pretty solid. We just got out-strengthed, out-sized.”

The Chargers had an early 4-0 lead after buckets from Will Kaesermann and Aaron Black. The Tigers answered with a 3 from Sturm before Ben Potter found Sturm on a cut to the hoop for a 5-4 lead.

Thompson’s and-one put MVL back in front 7-5, but the Tigers got a 3 from Vogel to take those 3 points back. The Tigers took their largest lead of the game, 13-9, after a pair of free throws from Potter.

Pearson canned a 3, however, before a putback from Thompson put MVL back in the driver’s seat. There were 14 lead changes in the game, all coming in the first half.

A steal for a layup by Pearson gave MVL its largest lead of the half, 30-23, but Vogel hit a much-needed 3 to stop a 6-0 MVL run and have Springfield down 30-26. Sturm scored on a drive to the hoop in the closing seconds to lead to a 33-28 halftime score in favor of MVL.

A corner 3 from Pearson, followed by a steal for a layup from Thompson gave MVL a 42-32 lead and prompted a Springfield timeout with 13:33 to play.

The Tigers got a 5-0 run out the timeout to trail 42-37, but the Chargers went on a 17-2 run after that to pull ahead 59-39. A 3 apiece off the bench from Sebastian Smith and Lukas Freier gave MVL its largest lead of the night and the final score.

“I asked them at the end of the game [what the difference in the second half was], and they said it was just talking,” Morgan said. “They started talking to each other and know what each other’s going to do and they know what they’re supposed to do and that just reinforces what they’re doing.”

The Chargers completed a regular-season sweep of Springfield with Tuesday’s win, defeating the Tigers 83-73 at MVL on Dec. 17, 2022. That was the first game of the season for the Tigers after their state football run, however, and Morgan said he expects the Tigers to be even bigger competition in the coming years.

“That was the first game for them after football,” Morgan said of the December win. “They were just getting their legs and now they’re playing together better, they move the ball well, and they’re going to be a good team next year and the year after just with that youth.”

MVL extended its winning streak to nine games with the win on Tuesday. The Chargers, now 14-3 overall and 10-1 in the conference, are at Winthrop to take on Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop on Thursday night.

Springfield (7-8, 6-4) will look to learn from Tuesday’s loss and snap a two-game skid when it travels to Cedar Mountain High School on Thursday night.

“We talked about having to play against that kind of physicality, that’s something we need to get better at,” Larson said. “Take care of the ball better, being able to play and execute against guys that are playing good, solid defense.”