BC men's basketball kicked off the 2020-21 season with an 82-79 loss to the Bruins of Bellevue Saturday evening at the Newman Flanagan Center. Despite a strong scoring output from the Charger starters, the Cliff could not pull off the win. 
 
Four of five Charger starters contributed double-digit point totals, led by Nick Hoyt and Ethan Freidel with 18 apiece. Jaden Kleinhesselink and Quinten Vasa added 15 points each, a career-high for Vasa in his first start for the Cliff.
 
The contest stayed tight from start to finish. The Chargers held a six-point halftime lead and extended that lead by as many as 10 early into the second half, but Bellevue tied things up again with 10 minutes to play. 
 
BC's final lead of the evening came at 59-58 with 9:53 on the clock and a layup from the Bruins' Lewis Hayes at 9:38 put his team ahead for good. 
 
The Chargers trailed by just one with eight seconds to play but were forced to foul to get the ball back. Down three with one second remaining, Kleinhesselink put away a layup and the home team did manage to get the ball back, but the Chargers could not put themselves back on top.  
 
"The guys really did battle tonight," said head coach Mark Svagera. "We saw some chances for Bellevue to really extend their lead in that final 10 minutes and our guys dug in and made some big stops for us."
 
The scoring from the starting lineup did not translate to the BC reserves. The bench only contributed nine points to the Cliff's cause with five from Wil Johnson. 
 
Quinn Vesey, the fifth starter, had only four points for the Chargers but led the team with six rebounds. Vasa added five rebounds to go with four assists and Kleinhesselink had two boards and led the squad with five helpers. 
 
Jonah Brown and Keshawn Bruner each had 14 points to lead the Bruins while Bruner added seven rebounds. 
 
"Bellevue got the better of us in a couple of aspects, but I saw some bright spots we can continue to develop as we move forward," Svagera added. "As in any early-season game, we found some things we can tweak and adjust before we get back to it next weekend."
 
Briar Cliff shot 48 percent from the field and 53 percent from the 3-point line. Bellevue was only successful on 38 percent of its shots from beyond the arc but was nearly 52 percent on all shows from the field. 
 
The Chargers will not have to wait long for another crack and Bellevue. Briar Cliff will travel to the Bellevue Classic next weekend, taking on Dickinson State Friday night and Bellevue on Saturday.