Photo by Brady Dennis Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Luke Merseth puts up a shot during a South Central Conference boys basketball game against Maple River Thursday at MVL High School.

NEW ULM — When Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Connor Bode buried back-to-back 3s midway through the first half, it gave the Chargers a 17-11 lead over Maple River.

But the Eagles responded with a 17-4 run to close out the first half and then held the Chargers at bay to come away with a 63-52 win over the Chargers in a South Central Conference boys basketball game.

Cole Davis led the Eagles (9-7, 2-3) with 21 points.

Owen Birkholz and Pierson Brau each scored 13 points, with Bode and Blake Sexton each adding 12 points.

“Maple River is a really good team,” Chargers head coach Kory Kettner said. “They’ve got a lot of guys who can put it in the hole and they are very well-coached. They knocked down a lot of shots and we were not able to get anything going offensively.”

Kettner said that the Eagles’ 17-4 run to close out the first 18 minutes came because of poor defense.

“We quit guarding the way we needed to guard,” he said. “They got downhill to easily with their right hand — they were able to make us pay for that. And our shots quit falling — we probably took some quick ones that we would like to have back. That is knowing what needs to be done during the game and we did not respond very well.”

The Chargers, who host Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Friday night, tried to erase a 7-point halftime deficit and cut the lead to 39-33 on Bode’s third 3-pointer of the game.

But poor shooting by the Chargers — from beyond the arc and from the free throw line — helped the Eagles keep the lead.

For the game, MVL made just six of 24 shots from 3-point land (25 percent) and just eight of 14 free throws.

“That happens, and you have to lean on your defense when you are not knocking down those 3s,” Kettner said. “Especially when we are taking that many. The missed free throws — there is not much of an excuse for that. That is more of a lack of concentration.”

Bode’s fourth 3 of the game with 25 seconds left in the game pulled MVL to within 61-52.

“It happens,” Kettner said about the poor shooting. “But we are going to be alright — we have a game [Friday] and we just have to wash this one away.”