Pierson Brau scored 19 points and Eli Schauland added 12 and Luke Merseth 11 as the Chargers downed Springfield 65-54 in a nonconference game.

Brecken Heiling led the Tigers with 17.

“I thought that we competed much better than we did on Monday [in a 78-48 loss to JWP],” MVL head coach Kory Kettner said. “We were tougher — we played more physical. Springfield is a great team.

“They are always so well-coached — Lance [Larson] does a great job and I love what he does with his guys. They play with such physicality and we had to match that.”

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Owen Birkholz (3) gets a five from teammate Trace Gunderson (13) after making a 3 in the second half of Friday night’s game against Springfield at MVL High School.

Tigers head coach Lance Larson said the Tigers needed to do more work with rebounding and in transition in the game.

“We got outworked in pretty much in pretty much every aspect of the game,” Larson said.

“We got outworked on the boards [39-28]. we got outworked running the floor and we got outworked thinking what we should be doing right. This was our first game, so we have time to regroup.”

The Chargers raced off to a fast 20-6 lead on two baskets from Brau and a 3 from Blake Sexton.

But the Tigers came back to cut the lead to 20-18 on two baskets from Madden Lendt with just over two minutes left in the first half.

“It was such a game of runs, and if you relax a little bit they can put it on you,” Kettner said. “They did it to use for a while and we were just lucky enough outlast them.”

The Tigers got their only lead of the game in the second half when Heiling buried a 3 for a 30-28 lead, but 3s from Sexton and Owen Birkholz and a free throw from Ethan Schauland moved the Chargers to a 35-30 lead.

Two free throws from Heiling tied the hame at 35-35, but a 6-0 run by the Chargers lifted MVL to a 41-35 lead that increased to 48-39 on a Brau 3.

The Tigers pulled to within 53-49 before MVL outscored Springfield 8-0 to take a 61-49 lead with two minutes to go and held on to give Kettner his first win as head coach of the Chargers.

“We were so much better defensively tonight but we had some lapses.” Kettner said.

“We had to learn to play with our feet tonight. But this is a great win because you consider this a big game.”