Yankton, South Dakota — Briar Cliff men’s basketball improved to 2-0 in GPAC play Wednesday with an 82-74 win over Mount Marty in Yankton, South Dakota. Nine Chargers scored in the contest with four reaching double digits point totals.
BC built a lead early, scoring the game’s first 11 points and held the Lancers scoreless for the first five minutes of play. An Elijah Pappas trey brought the Lancers to within five points with 6:33 left in the half, but a Jaden Kleinhesselink 3-pointer followed by a Quinn Vesey steal and score put the Cliff up 29-19. Matthew Stilwill sunk a pair of free throws to end the half and the Chargers led 37-27.
The Cliff got contributions from all nine players in the first half, with the starting five accounting for 25 points. Conner Groves led the way in the opening 20 minutes with seven points, followed by Jaden Kleinhesselink and Kyle Boerhave with six apiece.
Mount Marty began to chip away at the Charger lead early in the second half, with BC leading 44-42 after four minutes. BC lead 67-61 with 5:51 remaining, and extended their lead to 13 off a 7-0 run, capped off by a Vesey trey. Briar Cliff knocked down 6-of-6 free throw attempts in the final minute of regulation to ice the 82-74 win.
Vesey had an efficient 12 points in the second half going 4-for-7, knocking down two 3-pointers on his way to a team high 16 points. Hoyt also had a big second half, scoring 10 of his 13 points on 2-of-3 from deep and 4-for-4 from the charity stripe. Kleinhesselink and Groves added 14 and 12, respectively and Boerhave had nine points and seven rebounds.
Both teams shot the ball effectively with BC at 52.7% from the field and 47.6% from deep, while Mount Marty hit on 55.8% of their attempts and 43.5% from the 3-point line. The Chargers held the advantage in free throws, knocking down 14-of-17 attempts compared to just 6-for-7 for the Lancers.
BC came away with 10 steals, scoring 15 points off Lancer turnovers. The Charger bench continued their steady play, scoring 27 points.
The Blue and Gold travel to Oskaloosa, Iowa Saturday to face off against #3 William Penn with tip-off set for 3:00 p.m
