Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Brennan Bendix (2) gets a shot up past Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial’s Braxton Dudgeon (10) and Charlie Gengler (back, 3) during a South Central Conference boys basketball game on Thursday at MVL High School.

NEW ULM — One of Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s biggest strengths ultimately became one of its biggest weaknesses late in Thursday night’s South Central Conference boys basketball game against Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial.

While the Chargers’ defense and rebounding kept them ahead throughout much of the game, the Knights hit their shots late to force overtime and come back for an 80-77 overtime win.

“Our defense got the lead for us … and then we rebounded,” MVL head coach Craig Morgan said. “Then toward the end of the game we didn’t rebound as well.”

Blake Sexton led the Chargers with 20 points, while Connor Bode had 19 points and Brennan Bendix had 17 points. Pierson Brau and Luke Merseth each had three blocks.

LCWM was led by Charlie Gengler’s game-high 24 points and 13 rebounds, while Brayden Mathews had 16 points and 6-9 sophomore Carter Lowis finished with 12 and had the overtime-forcing bucket.

Lowis scored all of his points in the second half, his last obviously being his biggest.

“He got them all in the second half on rebounds basically,” Morgan said of Lowis. “We could not rebound as well and then when we had shots, we didn’t rebound on free throws and let them have second shots and that just wasn’t good.”

The Chargers also struggled at the foul line, going 10 of 23. The Knights didn’t fare much better at the line, going 12 of 23.

The Chargers led by 12 midway through the second half before the Knights turned things around late, getting a 12-0 run that ended with a corner 3 by Jack Goeringer to tie it at 58-all and force an MVL timeout with 5:04 remaining.

A Mathews 3 in the final minute of regulation had LCWM down 69-67 and Lowis’ bucket underneath with a second left tied it and sent it to overtime. After the Knights scored first in overtime, Bendix hit a 3 to give MVL a 72-71 lead. That was the last time the Chargers led, however, as the Knights got a 6-0 run to lead 77-72 in the final minute of overtime.

A tip-in by Sexton had the Chargers down 79-77.

After Mathews was fouled and got a pair of double-bonus free throws with 1.5 seconds left, he sank the first one and missed the second. Sexton hauled in the rebound but his near full-court heave hit the retractable gym dividing curtain hanging above midcourt as time expired.

The Chargers took the first lead of the game on a bucket inside by Sexton, but the Knights answered in the paint and at the foul line to quickly jump ahead 8-3. The Chargers got a 10-0 run after that to lead 13-8, with Bode contributing 8 of those points during the run and a pair of a 3s.

After the Knights cut the deficit to 13-12, Bode struck again for back-to-back 3s to give MVL a 19-12 lead and force an LCWM timeout with 10:06 left in the opening half.

The Chargers extended their lead to 29-19 after a 3 by Sexton, which was promptly answered with a corner 3 by Ben Brockmann. Bendix got the 3 back for MVL before Eric Sorenson found Owen Birkholz for a fast-break layup and 34-22 MVL lead, bringing another LCWM timeout with 4:08 left in the half.

The Knights cut their deficit back down to 5 after that, but a Bode layup had MVL up 43-35 at halftime.

Bode finished the first half with 17 points, but he cooled off a bit after his hot start and looked to pass more in the second half.

“You want him to shoot when he’s open, but you don’t want him to force things,” Morgan said of Bode. “Then when he got 14, all the sudden he started forcing it and shots were short, so we had to take him out to give him a rest and then he could go back in.”

The Chargers also collectively worked the ball inside more in the second half rather than relying on their 3.

The Knights got a boost from Braxton Dudgeon to start the second half in the form of back-to-back layups to trail 43-39. A Dudgeon and-one moments later had the Knights down 47-44.

A 9-0 run followed for the Chargers to give them a 56-44 lead.

After Goeringer tied it 58, Sorenson drove to the hoop and converted to put MVL back in front out of the timeout. Free throws from Sexton extended the lead to 62-58.

The Knights got the last shot of the half to tie it and send it into OT, however, where they finished strong for the win.

LCWM moved to 14-7 overall and 6-2 in the conference with the win, while MVL dropped to 11-11 overall and 3-5 in the conference.

MVL travels to St. Clair for another conference game Tuesday.