File photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Kyler Flunker goes up for a layup during a Tomahawk Conference boys basketball game with Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart on Jan. 27 at MVL High School.

NEW ULM — When this basketball season started out, Minnesota Valley Lutheran boys basketball head coach Craig Morgan was not sure how good his team would be.

“There were some question marks — last year we started a bunch of sophomores and they got experience,” Morgan said. “And as a group, they did not play together once this summer.”

Those sophomores are now juniors and they led the Chargers to their 15th straight win Friday night against Cedar Mountain. Along with that, they won the Tomahawk Conference crown and improved to an impressive 20-3 on the year.

Morgan said that the 15-game winning streak began after an 82-74 home loss to Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s.

“The guys were determined — one of their goals was to win the conference,” Morgan said. “They wanted to get better and better with each game. We have gotten better since then.”

And the Chargers have been dominating opponents this season, outscoring them by an average of 75-57.

That includes an early-season 83-63 loss to 22-2 Maple River.

“Our guys have really picked it up on the defensive end, and when they do that we get more possessions,” Morgan said. “Then our scores get higher — we have locked it down when teams try and slow it down on us. We have guys who can score and defend.”

Ben Pearson, a junior, has been given the keys at the point guard spot to run the MVL offense.

“We have been blessed,” Morgan said. “Ben is steady since we brought him up last year. He is quiet guy who gets to the rim and can also shoot from the outside. He can handle the ball and he has length — he is tall (6-foot-3) and long and it is hard to pass around him or shoot over him. He will steal passes that I thought would get over the top of him.”

Morgan said the team has seen improvement from every position.

“Kyler Flunker has been steadily improving, and our post players (Ty Sexton, 6-foot-3 and Aaron Black, 6-foot-5) have been working on their inside shots,” Morgan said. “I have never had a team this big inside. Then we have Malachi Kohls (6-foot-5) and Will Kaesermann (6-foot-4) — they are strong inside.”

Morgan also said that having Cole Thompson back early from a football injury has been a big plus.

And the Chargers are balanced.

“We had four players in double figures Friday,” Morgan said.

Right now the Chargers are ranked third in the Section 2AA North QRF rankings behind Norwood Young America and Belle Plaine.