Hunter Winkler led the Cyclones (14-13) with 18 points.

Blake Sexton led MVL with 20 points. Pierson Brau ended with 13 and Connor Bode 10.

Sexton also added 11 rebounds, with Bode ending with four assists as the Chargers end their season at 15-11.

“First of all hats off to St Clair,” Chargers head coach Kory Kettner said. “They made that one more play than what we did. I really thought that on the defensive end that we competed our tails off — we were elite on that end.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Pierson Brau grabs an offensive rebound away from St. Clair’s Hunter Winkler (3) and Braylen Hertling (32) during the first half of Tuesday’s Section 2AAA boys basketball playoff game against St. Clair at MVL High School.

“[But] Freitag hit that 3 at the end. They did not get any clean looks. We were tough and physical — we rebounded the ball well (out-rebounded St. Clair 27-26). We just had a hard time putting it in the hole.”

Outside of the Chargers holding an early 22-17 lead on a Trace Gunderson 3 and then a Gunderson basket off of a Cyclones turnover, the game never saw a double-digit lead for either team.

St. Clair held a 28-25 lead at halftime on a Winkler 3.

And the Cyclones took a 33-29 lead out of the break.

“We went from one extreme to another on offense- we were a little quick on the trigger early in the game,” Kettner said. “And as the game went on we got too patient when we needed to be somewhere in between.”

The Cyclones held the single-digit lead and had a 52-47 lead on an Austin Ward basket with 3:20 left in the game.

But a Bode 3 and free throws from Brau 30 seconds apart knotted the game at 52-52 in regulation.

Two baskets from Sexton had the Chargers holding a 56-54 lead.

But another Ward basket tied the game at 54-54 before Freitag sank a trey for a 59-56 lead.

Bode sank a free throw with four seconds left to pull the Chargers to 59-57.

Bode missed his next free throw, but the Chargers got the rebound. A desperation 3 by the Gunderson at the buzzer was no good.

“I am so proud of our guys especially our seniors (Connor Bode, Wyatt Feucht, Luke Merseth, Ethan Schauland) because of the standard that they set,” Kettner said. “They came to practice every day — competed their tails off. They were such great leaders — it is going to be tough to replace those guys.”