Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Will Kaesermann jumps to defend a shot by Sleepy Eye’s Cameron Schottle during a Tomahawk Conference boys basketball game Friday night at MVL High School in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — Minnesota Valley Lutheran broke open an early 8-6 lead over Sleepy Eye Public with a 15-0 run and outscored the Indians 33-11 in the first half enroute to a 64-23 win Friday night in a Tomahawk Conference game.

Cole Thompson led the Chargers (8-3,5-1) with 11 points, with Ty Sexton adding 10.

Aaron Black hauled down 11 rebounds for the Chargers, who outrebounded the Indians 44-21. Will Kaesermann added nine rebounds for MVL, while Ben Pearson had eight rebounds.

Brayden Heiderscheidt led Sleepy Eye (4-7, 1-6) with 6 points.

“We were coming off a nice win Thursday over (55-50) over Martin County West,” Chargers head coach Craig Morgan said. “We made a few mistakes, but everybody got a chance to get in play.”

Ten different Chargers scored in the contest.

The Chargers, who host Cedar Mountain Tuesday night, jumped to that big first-half lead aided by a cold shooting night by Sleepy Eye, which made just 3 of 11 shots from beyond the arc and only 1 of 12 field goals.

“Our kids are getting into the groove defensively, but this was our third game this week,” Morgan said. “So we are going to rest some legs over the weekend and go three games next week.”

That cold shooting by Sleepy Eye continued into the second half as they would make just 9 of 47 shots from the floor in the game and 4 of 22 from the 3-point line.

That allowed MVL to increase its lead in the second half, making it a 47-17 lead on a Black basket with just over seven minutes left in the game.

“Any win is nice to have,” Morgan said. “Our (82-74) loss to Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s is still stinging, so we are ready to keep playing. One of our goals is to win the conference, so we have to keep winning and improving.”