Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sibley East’s Brianna Kettner (11) puts up a shot in the paint while guarded by Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Avery Hahn (21) and Natalie Matzke (3) in the first half of Friday night’s South Central Conference girls basketball game at MVL High School.

NEW ULM — Against a Sibley East team that prides itself on defense, the Minnesota Valley Lutheran girls basketball team couldn’t afford to miss many open looks at the hoop on Friday night.

The Wolverines didn’t give the Chargers many open looks to begin with, however, and utilized a quick second-half offensive surge to pull away and take down the Chargers 47-37 in a South Central Conference game.

Avery Freier led MVL with 14 points and three assists, while Avery Hahn had 11 points and 13 rebounds.

Bridget Biron led the Wolverines with 13 points, while Brianna Kettner had 11 points and four steals.

In a slow first half for both teams, the Wolverines got some shots to drop late in the half to take a 24-15 lead at halftime. After giving MVL the first points of the second half on free throws by Ellie Kaesermann, the Wolverines took their first-double digit lead of the game, 27-17, on a 3 from Biron. Moments later, the Wolverines fired up with a 9-0 run to lead 42-22.

Sibley East head coach Ryan Kahle said he told his players at halftime to relax and take what they were given offensively.

“[I told them to] just play comfortable, be composed and don’t force things,” Kahle said. “Take what is given to you and good things will happen.”

In that slow first half, both teams were tied at 5-all before the back end of a pair of free throws from Hahn made it 6-5 MVL with 11:09 left in the half.

Sibley East took a 10-6 lead moments later on a jumper from Bethany Reierson, but Olivia Hammer answered with the Chargers’ lone 3 of the half to have her team down 11-10.

While the Chargers didn’t shy away from attempting 3s, they finished with just three 3s made in the game total, their second coming in the second half by Freier and their last coming by Natalie Matzke.

The Wolverines ended the half on a 6-0 run, getting a 3 from Olivia Halquist, a layup by Lundgren and a free throw by Biron.

“Fatigue had a big part of it,” MVL head coach Hailey Santos said of the team’s tough shooting night. “Third game of the week, not that that’s an excuse, but we’ve got girls coming off illness, of injury, then add in three games, three tough games, it’s hard to continue to compete at a high level when the legs just aren’t working, it’s hard to hit shots at a hard level.

“I do think in the first half especially we maybe made some choices on offense that were not in our best interest. I think we could have worked for better looks to maybe increase that shooting percentage a little bit.”

The Chargers fell to Maple River on the road Tuesday before dropping a game to Nicollet on Thursday at home. With Friday’s loss, they fell to 10-9 on the year and 1-4 in conference play.

The Wolverines, who moved to 8-12 overall and 4-2 in conference play, also swept the regular season series against MVL with Friday’s win. The Wolverines defeated MVL 56-55 in Arlington on Jan. 9.

“MVL has two very, very good basketball players,” Kahle said. “The whole game plan was if we could limit their shots and limit their points at the rim, we had a pretty good shot. I think we did a pretty good job of that tonight. Granted, some of our shots didn’t go in, but we’ve been a defensive team all season and we take pride in that. No matter was the score is, as long as we have a few more than they do, we’re in good shape.”

In the second half, the Wolverines went on a 9-0 run to lead 42-22, with a bucket inside by Mahrlie Lundgren and a jumper by Reierson completing the run. Freier then scored on a turnaround bucket in the paint to kick start a 9-0 run for MVL and have the Chargers down 42-31. Freier also had an assist to Hahn during the run, while Hahn had a steal that led to her getting an and-one. Freier finished the run with a pair of free throws.

Sibley East took a 15-point lead in the final four minutes, but Freier converted an and-one and Matzke sank a 3 to have the Chargers down 46-37 with 2:12 left to play. The Chargers couldn’t get anything else to drop after that, however, and the Wolverines added a bonus free throw in the closing seconds for the final score.

MVL is at Tri-City United on Tuesday, while Sibley East is at Waseca on Monday.